7/24/09 – Fridayyyyyyyyy!

I’m off to SOMEWHERE SPECIAL (no, NOT BlogHer! I actually only realized yesterday that BlogHer was going on this weekend.) where I will hang out with cool people, attempt to pet animals who hate me, and I understand there will be cupcakes and mockery (always my favorite combination). WOOT.

You know I’ll be updating from my super-secret special location. But to tide you over ’til then, I have for you your Friday Comment-Answering Extravaganza. Who loves ya???

I’ll be Twittering from the road, I’m sure. Maybe even blogging – depends on if anything interesting happens on the way!

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Go make yourself some Chocolate Zucchini Cake while you’re not doing anything. It’s reallllllly good.

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What I find most stunning about this (aside from the jaw-dropping boredom of it) is that Gwyneth Paltrow would even touch chicken.

I would have guessed for sure that she’s one of those raw food loons. Maybe she doesn’t actually eat the chicken, just taunts her husband and kids with it before she tosses it and serves them chopped lettuce and lettuce chunks wrapped up in lettuce leaves?

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I don’t always read Bitchypoo comments, so perhaps someone else mentioned this. The Animal Rescue Site is offering money to shelters this summer which can be obtained by voting. I would like to vote for your no-kill shelter, but need the name and city in order to do so. Maybe you can ask your many readers to vote too.

I had not heard of that – so how about it, you guys? Go to The Animal Rescue Site and vote for Challenger’s House, in Toney, Alabama, won’t you?

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This is not nearly so fun, but I dreamt last night that your litter bucket with the hive in it was in my apartment, and I spent most of the dream wandering around trying to figure out what to do with it. I am TERRIFIED of flying stinging things. Long story, bad experience in childhood.

When I was a kid, I was terrified of flying things – any kind of flying bug – I called them “beechies”, for some reason. As my mother tells the story, we were stationed in Indiana, and I went running out onto the front lawn and a swarm of locusts flew up into the air and I ran screaming back into the house howling “Beechies! Beechies!” at the top of my lungs.

I’m still not fond of any flying stinging bugs, but I’m more relaxed about it than I used to be – at least ’til one flies at my FACE.

Also, I’m “glad” to hear that Stinkerbelle is so mean. I have a mean cat- he’ll let me pet him, but when he’s done, he’s DONE- and will haul off and snap. Or if he’s hungry and I’m walking in the opposite direction from his food area, he’ll yowl and attack the backs of my ankles (he never attacks from the front, so I’ve been known to back warily around the house). But I love him. He’s my cat. People think I’m nuts, but there you are. I’m glad that you, the cattest person I’ve ever heard of, will still keep a meanie.

I will tell you that the only reason we adopted Stinkerbelle is because Fred loves her SO MUCH, he thinks she is SO PURTY with her big blue eyes. I can see her for what she really is, which is THE EMBODIMENT OF EVIL.

Actually, I think that she’d probably like to be a friendly lapcat, but she was so feral when she was young that she’s still got that ferality (is that a word? It is now!) ingrained in her personality and she just can’t get past it. Over the past few weeks she’s coming down from her perch atop the bookcase in the front room more and more, and in fact the last few evenings, she’s curled up on the back of the couch. Not close enough to be petted, but if you hold your hand out to her and move slowly, she’ll allow a few seconds of petting.

(But I don’t trust her at all. I pet her once or twice and then move on before she takes my hand off at the wrist.)

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Isn’t it annoying to have a cat who is mean and won’t let you pet her? I think I would resent having to feed and care for someone who gave me no affection in return. (but what do I know, I don’t have any cats!)

I try to think of her as refreshingly unneedy!

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Is Dwight still available? I believe that was the one who adored Fred. He is adorable… and orange too… and let’s not forget oh so loveable. *grin*

Dwight is NOT available – he got adopted last Friday evening. And none too soon – if he’d still been available this week, who knows what would have happened?? Creed got adopted, too, and now sweet little Phyllis is the only one left behind. I have faith that she’ll be adopted soon.

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Ah, Shortstop is a beauty. Would he be the only long haired cat at your place?

We do not have any long haired cats at present. I told Fred the other night that Shortstop is so pretty and laid-back that maybe he could be our Charlene Butterbean!

(Charlene Butterbean is the grown cat at Itty Bitty Kitty Committee headquarters who adores kittens. I want a grown cat who adores and will play with kittens, damnit!)

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That typo guy should hook up with the idiot who reads the same books I do from the library. She (yes, I *can* tell by the handwriting it’s a she) corrects the “error” and writes whole paragraphs in the margins explaining the rules. I’d love to find out who it is so I can tell her she’s a fucking idiot for not understanding that a character’s dialogue doesn’t have TO USE PROPER GRAMMAR!!!!!! ASSHOLE!

Ok, I’m ok now.

I’d totally report her to the librarians. She’s interfering with your enjoyment of the books and defacing library property, damnit!

And Leonore said:

Okay, writing in library books is completely obnoxious and yes, the book defacer does seem to miss the idea behind dialogue, or perhaps, style and diction as a literary device. Having said that, those typo hunters? They are my people! I want to join the rebellion and become a crusader for good grammar! Hell, for good proofreading! I’m so tired of “Ladie’s” rooms or seeing the emphatic quotation marks (So those “real boiled” peanuts are really fried macadamia nuts or something?), or “Ten items or less” signs. I was watching Bridezillas (what happens on bitchypoo.com stays on bitchypoo.com…)and the producers were kind enough to inform us that the week’s brow-beaten, broken groom and his controlling, manipulative bridezilla who is holding his balls had gotten “pregnat” 6 months after the episode had aired. Please!!! NO ONE CAUGHT THIS??? Sure, I can try to get through to my students and get them to correct their more egregious errors, but it’s all just a drop in the bucket. Nice to see the typo hunters fighting the good fight! 🙂

God yes, the emphatic quotation marks. My favorite, seen in a store window, being:

“Checks” are not excepted!

as seen in Gatlinburg, years ago.

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Is it wrong when Fred made mention of the potential threat of blackhead – I immediately thought of them all getting zits? And now i have to go google blackhead/chickens/turkeys to find out what the hell he’s talking about. Thanks, Fred. Ya fucker.

That’s Fred – forcing people to educate themselves against their will. 😀

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Hey Robyn…what’s the deal with tipping when you get crap service? Is that just what you do in the States? Forgive me, but we don’t usually tip here in Australia, only when the service is very good. So leaving a tip when you’re really unhappy with the service just seems counter intuitive to me. I understand that the wages of the staff are lower, and understand that their tips are supposed to make up the difference, but seriously. I just can’t tip if I’m given bad service. Am I just a bitch?

And Leonore said:

As for tipping, as a former waitress and bartender, I will tip very generously if the service warrants it, but I will also be more willing to tip a bare minimum if the service is bad for no reason. If the restaurant is slammed and the wait staff is trying not to break into a run in front of customers, then that’s one thing. But if we are one of two tables in the whole restaurant and my wait person is standing around taking up oxygen rather than, say, doing their work, then I have no reason to believe he or she deserves anything but the minimum since that is what I am getting in return from that wait person.

I believe – and y’all can correct me if I’m wrong – that tipping 10% as a bare minimum for poor service, 15% for adequate service, and 20% or above for good service is what’s widely accepted as what you’re supposed to do in the US. I know that people believe that poor service should equal no tip at all, but I’ve only once or twice left a restaurant without tipping; I just can’t bring myself to do it. I was a waitress when I was a teenager and got stiffed on the tip often enough when I KNEW the service was good that as a result I overtip.

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I love to check out garage sales, but I hate when people exaggerate the size of their sale. Multi-family! Gigantic sale! And you get there and it’s a couple of lonely tables and a sad-looking pile of clothes, manned by a woman and her elderly mother.

That drives. Me. NUTS! There should totally be a law against that. Sheriff Mama could go around and inspect yard sales and kick ass, if need be.

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Off topic question for you and your readers (if you don’t mind) – do any of you have pet insurance? What do you think about it – good to have or waste of money?

With as many cats as we have, I think we’d end up paying more for insurance than our vet bills cost us. I’ve never really read anything that has convinced me that pet insurance is worth the price.

Readers?

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Never thought of dehydrated zucchini slices. Are they a little like a thick potato chip or more like the banana slices? I like sweet so I think I would like them.

They’re a bit thicker than potato chips – though I imagine you could slice them thinner and end up with dehydrated slices that are comparable to potato chips if you’d like.

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my attention span & eye for detail are very slack–so if you already talked about this, sorry. do you plant broccoli? I’ve planted it the last several years & it is awesome because it produces for a long time & even makes it through the first couple frosts.

We don’t plant broccoli, though we both like it, and when I asked my gardener why we don’t grow broccoli, he informed me that he thinks the summers get too hot to successfully grow it. Though I’m thinking that as mild as this summer has been so far, we should have given it a try!

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And you don’t need just one shelf for the kittens…you need to convert your whole house to be “cat-friendly” 🙂
http://www.thecatshouse.com/

In my dreams!

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The local nursery here has what I believe to be the best cherry tomatoes ever! They are called Sweet 100s and they are so tasty and sweet like the name says. Each plant makes tons of fruit… hence the name Sweet 100s.

I’ve added that to my list for next year. Have you ever tried Sungold cherry tomatoes? They are fabulous! I think ours drowned this Spring, because we’re not getting any Sungolds (or possibly the seeds we got weren’t true Sungolds), but I’m putting them at the top of the list for next year. SO good!

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Am I being dumb when I ask, how do you rehydrate zucchini? 😀

You take them to the hospital and request an IV for them, of course. 😛

Actually, you soak them in warm water for a bit. Ten minutes to half an hour so usually works for me.

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Have the cats decided who the head badass is now?

I think Sheriff Mama is the head badass for now, due to the fact that she does NOT back down. She gets RIGHT in the face of whoever’s displeasing her, and she’ll let them KNOW how it is. I don’t know that she’ll always be the head badass, things are still getting worked out, but she’s the interim badass for the time being at least.

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Do you still like/use your Roomba? Most of the online reviews show that people love them at first, but then the Roomba starts to malfunction after about a year. If you still use it, are you able to use it when you are not home or does it get hung up on objects?

I do like it, and I do still use it – I probably don’t use it as often as I did in the beginning, because the room where I use it the most is the kitchen, and that’s close to the computer room, and listening to it run and run and run annoys me. If I’m going to be in another part of the house or listening to my iPod or running out to do errands, I’ll start it up.

As long as I check the floor for cat toys (or anything that might get hung up in the Roomba) and make sure the floor is clear, I don’t have any issues. Every once in a while if I’m not paying attention, the batteries in one of the virtual walls runs low, and the Roomba gets past it the virtual wall into the rest of the house. For some reason, it tends to end up in the guest bedroom under the bed when that happens. I’m not sure why it always heads that way or why it runs out of steam under the bed. Maybe it’s hiding from me.

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how much money do you think you & Fred save on groceries every month now that you produce so much of your own food? You’ve got quite the little farm going!

I really wish I’d kept better records before, regarding how much we spent on groceries on a monthly basis. If I had to guess – and this is just a ballpark guess on my part, I have no hard facts to back up what I say – I’d guess we’re saving in the area of $150 a month. We never have to buy pork or chicken, only occasionally buy beef, and have to buy the occasional vegetable here and there. Mostly our grocery money goes towards stuff like shredded wheat, oatmeal, condiments, frozen fruit (very bad year for fruit for us, this year. Due to the rain, we ended up with no fruit from our trees at all.), cottage cheese. It’s really nice, not having to run to the grocery store and load up once a week the way we used to, that’s for sure!

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Smilin’ Joe heads across the back yard to look for TROUBLE, I’m sure.

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Previously
2008: So my question to you: when the Alzheimer’s gets really bad, would it be better to feed him to the pigs or just chop his head off with the hatchet?
2007: (Yeah, yeah, har. I am HILARIOUS.)
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: “You mean Todd Beamer wasn’t the only one on that flight?”
2001: That’s it, that’s all the Miz Poo stories I have at the moment. I hope that’ll hold you.
2000: At the end, after having achieved a size 8, Jemima porked ALL the way back up to a 10, the cow.