You know how there are days when you have a million errands to run, but you don’t wanna run ’em? But there’s no one else who’ll run them, so you have no choice?
Yesterday was one of those days for me. Though, really, none of my errands were so pressing that they couldn’t have been put off a day or two, I wanted to get them done and over with. So I left the house a little after 9 got back home around noon. In between I:
* Stopped by Walgreen’s to look for Wild Berry Jolly Ranchers. I like the Wild Berry mix more then the original flavors, but they’re hard to find. And apparently Walgreen’s doesn’t carry them anymore, damnit, so I bought a bag of the original flavors. If I could buy a bag of JUST the wild strawberry flavor (the hard candies, not the gummies or chews), I’d be a happy camper.
* Stopped by TJ Maxx. I was at the TJ Maxx in South Huntsville last week, and saw that they had Mrs. Meyers Automatic Dishwashing Liquid for $5 a bottle. It usually runs in the area of $8 a bottle, so I decided to buy a single bottle and give it a try, figuring that I could give it a try, and if I liked it, I could stop at the TJ Maxx in Madison and buy more. As it turns out, I like the Lemon Verbena version quite a lot, so I wanted to get more before TJ Maxx sold out. I was ready to stock UP on that stuff, but they only had two bottles of the Lemon Verbena left, and the Lavender scent smells like ass to me, so I just bought the two they had, and called it good enough.
* Stopped by the place where I have my eyes examined to pick up the two boxes of contacts I’d ordered last week. I thought about looking at the glasses, but there were a lot of people in there, so I decided not to. I’ve already told Nance that she’s on the hook for going glasses shopping with me next time she comes to visit, because clearly I need someone to tell me what the hell to buy. My parents are coming to visit later this week, maybe I’ll drag my mother to the glasses place with me so she can advise me. Do I know how to show my guests a rollicking good time, or what?
* Stopped by Target because… well, I don’t think there was anything I needed, but I hadn’t been to Target in two weeks, so was going through withdrawal. I bought a few groceries, including a bag of Clementines (which are awesome), looked at the body pillows, and just generally wandered around. I didn’t end up buying a body pillow because for some reason they were not doing it for me. I’ll have to decide whether I really want one, or just think I do because the one Mary Louise Parker was hauling around in the most recently released season of Weeds on DVD looked so appealing. (Speaking of, I am enjoying the hell out of the delightfully creepy Shane.)
* Stopped by Petsmart to eyeball the cats (remember the little bitty bottle babies that I babysat for a few days, and then the woman who had them had a family crisis and decided to turn them over to Challenger’s House, so I had them here full-time for a few days before turning them over to another foster mom? The black one (Sweepie) was adopted over the weekend, and the black and white one (Sootie) is waiting for someone to come along and fall in love with him. He was curled up, sound asleep, looking mighty happy when I wandered by.) (Also, reading that entry I linked above made me realize that I REALLY FREAKIN’ MISS MY COOKIES AND MY WONKAS.)), and then look at the food storage containers. The containers I keep the cat food in right now look like this and I thought I’d prefer to replace them with a couple of these, but after much looking and dithering, I decided that what I already have works just fine. I bought some bird seed and a few cat toys, and left.
* Stopped by Publix to pick up my Synthroid prescription.
And then I was home again! Now I don’t need to run any errands for at least a few more days – which is good, because the house needs some cleaning before my parents get here on Thursday, and also I have at least three episodes of Hoarders taking up space on the DVR, so I need to get to watching!
A couple of you asked how George and Gracie did with all the rain. They were fine – when the weather’s going to be horribly nasty and rainy like it was over the weekend, Fred leaves the coop open at night so they can get inside out of the rain. Of course, if they were ever desperate, they could get in out of the rain in the dog house that Fred built for them on the back side of the coop (it’s well sheltered and elevated and stays nice and dry), but they could not be less interested in that dog house.
They thought the water was great fun, though – more than once I looked out to see them running through the water in the corner of the back forty, water that was up past their bellies.
I think that scientists need to take up the study of whatever George and Gracie’s fur is made of – I swear to god, they’ll get horribly muddy and nasty looking, and then a few hours later they’ll be completely clean again. I tell Fred I think their fur is made of Teflon, and the dirt just slides right off.
Taken not ten minutes ago. Look at those guilty faces. “We weren’t slacking off in the coop! We were, uh, investigating! Some suspicious chicken poop!”
Please shed that chicken poop ASAP, George, if you don’t mind.
This is how organized I am – I stumbled across a folder on my hard drive labeled “Stuff I bought.” This folder had pictures I’d taken of stuff I bought, that I wanted to show y’all.
This stuff I bought, when did I buy it and take these pictures, you ask? September of 2007. Good lord. And it’s not like the folder was hidden or anything – I tend to put everything in my /tmp folder before I ultimately file everything (it works for me), and the “Stuff I Bought” folder was a subfolder of the /tmp folder, so I’ve been scrolling past it at least once a day for the last two years and some months.
So here you go, here’s some stuff I bought back in 2007!
Coaster. It cracks me UP.
Refrigerator magnets.
Watermelon cat on the left, and onion cats (salt and pepper shakers) on the right.
Catnip mat. I’m not even sure where this is. I think one of the evil little bastards peed on it.
A tin of catnip with toy mice inside. The cats REALLY liked these mice, as I recall.
This is a spoon rest, but I’d like to figure out a way to mount it and hang it on the wall. Suggestions?
Fagen TRULY does not like being alone. If he’s in the room alone, he howls and howls. Luckily, Jake and Elwood are very good about going in and keeping him company (though to be honest, I’m pretty sure their interest lies more in the fact that there’s a bowl of Science Diet kitten food in there and fun toys). He ran out the door yesterday evening, so we waited to see how he’d do, running around the house.
Not very well, is how he did, and having him out running around actually made Dan start to revert to his skittish behavior. So back into the room we put Fagen. My parents are coming to visit later this week with their dog Benji (who is a very nice dog), and I’m curious to see what Dan’s reaction to the dog will be.
At Christmas, Fred’s father and stepmother offered us a few things they’d cleared out of their attic. One of those things was a basket. I liked the size and color of it, though when I took it, I wasn’t sure what we were going to do with it. I tried putting a cat bed in it, and put it in the front room, and one of our cats reacted by peeing in it. (Grrr.) So once it was cleaned up and destinkified, I put another cat bed in it, and we put it on top of the canning cabinet in the dining room, where Stinkerbelle always sleeps.
Oh, she had a FIT because we took her old bed away and replaced it with this horrible basket FILLED with cat beds to make it ever more comfy for her Highness. She made her angry high-pitched meow, she stomped around, she glared at the basket. Fred caved in less than an hour.
“I’m going to put a bed back up there next to the basket,” he said. “She doesn’t like the basket!”
“Well, give it a DAY before you give up on it!” I said, but he would not be dissuaded, and he put a bed up there next to the basket.
The next morning, I was leaving the house, and glanced into the dining room. There, curled up in the basket, looking as happy as she could possibly look, was Princess Stinkerbelle. I snapped a picture and sent it to Fred, saying “Poor, poor Stinky. It’s a rough life!”
Note that the basket is actually sitting on top of a cat bed so it doesn’t rock back and forth when she’s climbing in and out. SO SPOILED.
Previously
2009: You are correct, sir.
2008: The dog continues to improve. (Read here to see how the dog came to be in our possession.)
2007: Are ya feelin’ bubbly, punk? Well? Are ya?
2006: I think it would be hilarious if someone started manufacturing imitation Maui Jim sunglasses and called them “Oahu James” sunglasses.
2005: I figure they’re professionals and know what they’re doing, so I have no desire to clutter up the small amount of space left in my brain with that kind of information.
2004: I sense that there is a battle of epic proportions in my future, a show-down between Miz Poo and I as to just WHO the blanket belongs to.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: But don’t tell Miz Poo I’m admiring another cat, please…
2000: It’s a conspiracy!