February 20, 2009.

I can witness for Fred…. there was a discussion the other day on Kidd Kraddick in the Morning (KISS-FM here in Dallas) about the pros and cons of Snuggie vs. Slanket. I got a Snuggie for Christmas, and it is nice for curling up on the sofa on cold mornings. You’re right, though – a robe put on backwards would accomplish the same effect (though the Snuggie is a bit longer than a robe – good for tucking in around your feet). I actually thought Kidd was making up the “Slanket” (to me it sounds like a Saturday Night Live fake commercial product name) until I Googled it and yep, it’s a real thing.

Fred said that exact same thing, that he thought the Slanket was a joke. It does sound like an SNL commercial, doesn’t it?

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Was wondering if you or any readers can help with my cat. He’s had pooping and peeing outside of the litter box issues, anxiety related according to my vet. Those seem to be okay right now but now she thinks he has cat IBS. She wants me to buy the vet brand of cat food but I just don’t have the $$ for that. Does anyone’s cat have this problem and what do you feed it?

How about it, y’all – anyone have a cat or cats with IBS? Suggestions?

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Regarding feeding of cats – I began raw feeding after meeting Dr Tom Lonsdale. Not only have my cats got gorgeous shiny coats, but the only time they need to go to the vet is for a yearly checkup!! And, big bonus…..because they use all the nutrients from the raw meat diet, their poo is smell free!!! Check out his website for yourself…

We’ve actually discussed moving to a raw food diet for the cats since we have so many chickens!

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Your 2008 quote is priceless. Can you imagine if your current flock escaped their yard?! The chaos, not to mention George & Gracie’s response! LOL!

I still cannot for the life of me believe that a year ago we had 13 chickens and now we have… well, I don’t even know HOW many damn chickens we have! If the chickens ever found a way to escape the back forty, we’d be screwed!

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How the heck does Joe get up there?

He jumps from the floor to the counter, from the counter to the top of the fridge, and from there either to the top of the kitchen cabinets and then to the top of the bookcase or, if he’s feeling froggy, he’ll jump directly from the top of the fridge to the top of the bookcase.

Reminds me… My sister-in-law just finished up with a contractor who installed a kitty-sized set of wooden stairs running from their cellar to a cat door in their bedroom. This is in addition to a series of cat walks and ramps that traverse throughout the cellar. They have no children, and I was made executor of their wills, which include the instructions to not sell the house until all the (5 as of now) kitties have been placed in good homes. My husband can’t understand this.

I totally understand wanting to make sure that your pets are all placed in good homes if you die! So who wants which cat? Y’all claim ’em now, we could die in a car accident on the way to or from one of the flea markets we’ve been haunting on the weekends!

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The clown is creepy but cool. Did you not want it because of It? I bet Fred wanted it because it reminded him of that book. It’s probably my favorite after The Stand. Stephen King is my favorite author too. Have you read any of his sons’ stuff yet? I just saw that they are writing on a Stephen King forum on amazon a week or two ago.

I mostly didn’t want it because it was creepy – but we also don’t need more crap cluttering up the house! Damnit! (Now, if it had been something I wanted, I would have totally managed to find room for it. Y’know how it is.) I’ve read books by both Joe Hill (Heart-Shaped Box, 20th Century Ghosts – liked the former, wasn’t crazy about the latter) and Owen King (We’re All in this Together, which I really liked). The King boys are pretty talented, I’d say.

Did you try the goat cheese yet? I really like the tangy taste on a pizza.

I’ve tried both kinds that we bought, but they were both flavored goat cheese (one’s Tuscan and the other is.. Ranch, maybe?). I want to try just regular goat cheese, so I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for some!

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So Fred was scared of the roads, not the clown. I’ll write that down on my list titled ‘Weird Things About Fred.’ Right next to the fact that he likes cheese, just not on a salad. (Why is that fact still in my head?!)

EVERYONE knows that Fred likes cheese, just not on a salad. What everyone forgets is that he ALSO doesn’t like cheese on a burger. He’s such a weirdo.

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Zach and Miri was such a funny movie, wasn’t it? I saw it in the theater with friends and we laughed so hard! Have you seen Pineapple Express? I thought it was going to be funny too because “Zach” was in it, but I didn’t like that movie at all.

We both really enjoyed Zack and Miri, although when it comes to Kevin Smith movies, Clerks will always be my favorite, followed closely by Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Seth Rogen’s laugh irritates Fred; I can see why, it’s kind of annoying.

We did watch Pineapple Express and I remember kind of enjoying it (while surfing the internet on my laptop!), but I’ll be damned if I can remember anything about it.

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Do you clean your walls and ceilings and if so, how and how often? And how often do you clean the blinds, and how do you do that? Your house is always so clean, I thought I would ask the expert.

I can’t say that I’ve ever cleaned the ceilings. It depends on the room as to whether the walls get cleaned. The walls in the foster kitten room get wiped down maybe three times a year, same with the laundry room, and I think I’ve done the kitchen walls twice since we moved in. I usually use my spray bottle of all-purpose cleaning spray, spray a small area at a time, then wipe it down with a cleaning rag. I think I’ve also used a bucket of hot water with a touch of ammonia in it, wet the rags, squeezed ’em out, and wiped the walls. It mostly depends on what I feel like using at the time.

I try to dust the blinds every few months, and I just use a dry rag and wipe along the slats of the blinds. Well, except for the blinds in the laundry room (which hang right behind the litter boxes), which I vacuum with the brush attachment on the Dyson whenever it occurs to me to do so.

Readers – got cleaning tips you want to share?

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It’s not always the cashier (although I suspect in this case it was). I’m an art student and use craploads of those foam paintbrushes. Normally they’re 39c, but every once in a while Joann’s or Michael’s will have them at 20 for $1, so I usually buy 80 or 100 when they do. In both places, can I tell them I have 100? NO! The registers won’t do that (cashiers have told me this in BOTH stores). They have to SCAN the brushes 100 times, and I get a receipt a mile long (because it has to print on one line that NORMALLY they’re 39c, and then another line to tell me that TODAY they’re 5c. EACH!

Do you tell them that they’re single-handedly killing the planet when they waste paper like that? 🙂

Yeah, I’ve had cashiers at the dollar store not be able to just hit a button on the register to show that I’m buying multiple items, but at Target I know they have that option, ’cause they do it for me all the time.

Now I’m getting irritated at that cashier all over again! It wasn’t so much the fact that she didn’t know what she was doing that got me – it was that she acted like I was trying to get away with something! Yeah, let me sneak these four (THERE WERE FOUR, LISA!) 28-pound buckets of litter out under my coat!

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Clearly, I’m behind. You got DOGS??? I thought you were not a dog person.

(Hee. I love using that picture!)

Yeah, we got dogs back in December to protect the chickens from hawks and other predators. We are NOT dog people – we ARE George and Gracie people, though. But they’re working dogs, not pets.

Not pets! I mean it!

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Do both pups have speckled bellies?

and

Please explain the dog’s spotty belly. That is charming and so cute that I first thought it was a post-neuter band-aid (until I realized that immediately post-neuter, the dog wouldn’t want a belly rub).

Both dogs do indeed have speckled bellies, though George’s belly is more spotted and Gracie’s is more splotchy, like such:

George.

Gracie.

Y’all will have to tell me – is it usual for dogs to have bare bellies? Because both George and Gracie have bare bellies, and you’d think they’d get cold!

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Did you watch the Real Housewives OC Finale? Please say you did, because I’d like to know what you think about how Vicki acted over the little wallets Gretchen bought everyone. Also, please comment on all the other over the top shit that went on on the Finale. Wow. I hope you watched it.

Indeed I did, and I’ll cut and paste from a couple of emails I sent about it – but first I’ll say that I hate the way Vicki and Tamra act about Gretchen, like she’s trying to pull one over on them when she’s being nice. As far as I can tell (and yeah, I’ve never met Gretchen and this is a “reality” TV show), Gretchen seems like a sweet girl and I really like her!

Okay, now to the cutting and pasting:

I think it is HILARIOUS that Tamra made comments about Jeana’s boobs hanging out – pot, kettle, black!

I canNOT believe the balls on Vicki – what a thing to say about Gretchen. JEESUS. Do these women have any concept of the reality that when they say evil shit like that, the other women are going to hear it? I hope she gives ’em hell at the reunion next week. Granted, I found Gretchen occasionally annoying with the shrieking and the over-the-top guffawing, but she really seems like a sweetheart and I felt really bad for her.

Jo looked horrible with those bangs, and Slade Smiley (worst name ever – and you KNOW he came up with it himself. Maybe with copious amounts of pot involved!) is such a tool. Jo, when someone tells you you look like you’re 13, it’s not always a compliment!

I think that Vicki was probably right about this desire to join the Army being something that was caused by Brianna’s boyfriend breaking up with her. I noticed at the end that she’s put off joining the army and is exploring “other options”, at least. I could understand Vicki bugging out about Brianna joining the military, but I kind of understand Brianna’s desire to go off and explore the world too. I have to say, I was surprised to see that Michael actually graduated from college, doesn’t he strike you as the party-’til-he-drops-out sort?

I don’t like Jo’s hair like that at ALL, and Slade – UGH.

When Simon (is that right? Is Tamra’s husband Simon? I’m not getting mixed up, am I?) gave her the bracelet and then proceeded to tell her what the design was and what these stones were or whatever, she looked distinctly underwhelmed. When they had that stilted conversation about how they don’t spend a lot on gifts for each other EVERY year, I was thinking “Yeah, just on the years the camera is around!”

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Oh please! The belly rub and “hello gorgeous”? Those dogs are totally your PETS.

WORKING DOGS. NOT PETS. The dogs are no more pets than the chickens are.

For god’s sake, it’s not like we PET the chickens or Fred walks around with the friendly little speckled chicken on on his shoulder or anything, that would be CRAZY.

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When I moved into my first house and started landscaping the yard, my mom had one piece of advice: Don’t plant a sweet gum tree! She planted one 40 yrs ago because the nursery worker said it was fast growing and a great shade tree but he didn’t mention those “sticker balls”–she’s been cursing them ever since!

We have a couple of HUGE sweet gum trees, and we had a wind storm last week. With those fuckers raining down, I felt like I was in a war zone. I do NOT recommend any kind of gum tree at all. When I am old and frail, I will likely slip on the damn things and break my hip!

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George and Gracie do not seem to be getting much bigger. I was thinking that they would get really big. How big do you think that they’ll get?

They’re getting bigger, just now that they’re seven months old, they’re not growing quite as fast. Fred weighed George earlier this week, and found that he (George, that is) has gained 13 pounds in the past month. Male Pyrs usually weigh 100 – 160 pounds, and females usually weigh 85 – 125 pounds. It’s anyone’s guess right now how big they’re going to end up being, but I’m going to guess they’ll both likely be over 100 pounds.

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Hi Robyn – Wow your jam is delicious!!!! I made a plate with whipped cream cheese on the bottom and the strawberry habanero on top, to be eaten with crackers for the Daytona 500 party we went to! Wow – was it hot and yummy. The more our nose would run – the more we ate! Thank you!!! This weekend I am going to open up the raspberry jam! I bought the trio and yummy – it is worth the shipping costs – I recommend that everybody try it out!

Why, thank you! I always like hearing that you guys are enjoying the jam!

I’ve got one more day of jam-making to do, and then we’ll officially be out of habaneros ’til mid-summer! New jams and hot sauces will be available late Sunday/ early Monday. Maybe Saturday, depending.

(And as a side note, if you email me about placing an order and don’t hear back from me within 24 hours, I didn’t get your mail. Usually I email back within a few hours (depending on when you emailed me – if it’s the middle of the night, obviously I don’t get back to you ’til the next morning), so if you don’t get a response, email me again. And I’ll keep a closer eye on my spam folder, just in case!)

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Fred has an ex??

and

I’m with Becky…I didn’t know Fred had an ex either. I’ve been reading your blog for a number of years now but that one escaped me. Do tell.

and

Fred has a whackjob ex??? Details, please!

and

And, I’m echoing Becky, Jillybean, & Marilyn — “Fred has an ex?” Oh yeah, details could provide a good read in next journal entry.

Aw, you guys – I didn’t mean to get you excited! When I said “ex”, I meant ex-girlfriend, not ex-wife. There’s no real story there, Fred hasn’t heard from her since before I moved down here. He wrote about it five years ago, in this entry (skip down to the blue section).

I don’t know her, never met her, “talked” to her once or twice in passing (she liked to hang out in the IRC chatroom Fred ran back then), but I’d still kind of like to scratch her eyes out for the bullshit game-playing mindfuckery she pulled on Fred.

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Did you know that Mister Boogers has an opinion on Valentine’s Day?

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Previously
2008: About ten minutes after Lupe started her circuit of the kitchen, I heard her sing a happy little song and went into the kitchen to find that she’d docked herself and was happily recharging.
2007: “Hey,” I said despondently. “He’s dead.”
2006: But I’m afraid that now it’s tasted human blood, it’s going to require a periodic human sacrifice.
2005: No entry.
2004: The Bean appeared before me, eyes wide and dark, a sad little I’m a poor kitty who has lost his way look on his face.
2003: They freaked out.
2002: Um. In yesterday’s entry, I MEANT to link to Fred with the words “nice butt”, not MYSELF.
2001: We got proof today that we, in fact, do not have two gay hamsters.
2000: No entry.