Bet You Didnt Know

It was a Shepard boy, three wise men and.......a big fat lazy cat, that were at the manger.

The Results Are In

I have always liked going to school. I'm not super smart. I'd say, maybe slightly above average smart. I had to take notes. I had to study. Some. And I got A's and B's. (Mostly. We won't talk about the D in high school Geometry.)

Even after high school. I liked going to college. I had to takes notes. I had to study. Some. And I got A's and B's. (Mostly. We won't talk about the summer I took two History classes ITV. That was the late 80's version of 'on line'- renting VHS tapes with recorded lessons-and then going to the school to take a test. C. Didn't watch the tapes until the day before the test was due.)

Well, that was college in my 20's and early 30's.

College in my mid 40's? A slightly different story, I have discovered.

I don't enjoy it as much. Now it feels like work and before it didn't. I have to take notes. I have to make vocabulary lists. I have to study. A lot. I have to go to the school labs for extra tutoring. I to take practice tests. I have a hard time remembering stuff on tests. I stressed out before every test because I was afraid I was going to fail.

It makes me feel old and I don't like that.

I started out just going because of grant money being available. Then I found out half way through that because of the number of credit hours I have (a lot, but varied and no degree) that I couldn't get financial aid. I decided that was ok, I wanted to get a degree anyway.

Then I sat down and figured out exactly what it would take for a bachelors in Accounting. It would take maybe 7 or 8 years. And another math class. And economics. And statistics.

With all the trouble I was having with algebra, I doubted my ability to take those kind of classes. And 7 or 8 years? I'd prefer to be retired by that time.

So I decided I wasn't going to do it. I was done with school for good. I was probably going to fail algebra anyway.

I've known my Accounting grade along the way because the instructor posts everything on line. 89 on the final, 98 overall. But Algebra? No idea. Test #1-83, #2-73, #3-75. I turned in all my homework assignments. But that final.

Well.

I got a C.

Hmm. I'm average. I may be ok with that.

7 or 8 years, huh? That's not that bad.

Maybe.

Why...

Is the Sam's parking lot full of seagull?

My Wake Up Call This Morning

Brrr

I learned this morning, when it is very cold and you don't want to take your gloves off, that it is possible to operate an iPhone with the tip of your nose.

I Ask You...

Is this nice??

Invasion Coming?

Zombies? Martians? Communists?

I don't know. But I came home from my doctor appointment and this is what Hubby had left on the bed.

Why does FAT taste so good?

We ran out of skim milk. I'm out of tasty peppermint coffee mate.

I'm running late leaving for work this morning (overtime) and I don't want to stop at the store.

I'm desperate.

I use Hubby's half and half.

Wow. It taste soooo much better than skim milk. But it is soooo much more fattening.

It's just not fair.

Our New, umm, Hobby?

At Hubby's last doctor appointment he was given the lecture on the evil of sodas.

Doctor said to look at healthy old people. Do you see them sucking down can after can of soda?

Nope. They drink coffee.

He went on to extoll its virtues. Less likely to have type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's and dementia. Fewer cases of some cancers, heart rhythm problems and strokes.

Not to mention how it contributes to keeping you...regular...in the bathroom visits.

And the BEST part...caffeine.

So Hubby decided to kick his soda habit and try to get a coffee habit.

He started out by trying coffee from different places; McDonald's, Exxon, and a couple of other places. He decided he liked McDonald's coffee best - and no he didn't go to Starbuck's, probably because he is aware of my feelings of paying THAT much money for just coffee and don't get me started on the calorie count in one of those things! Anyway. He then went on-line and did a little research and determined that Folger's Morning Blend is the closest thing to McDonald's.

Now, during his investigative phase he spent a lot of time trying to convince me that I also should be drinking coffee. I pointed out that I has no soda habit to get over. My last soda and caffeine was 5 years ago when I had Lap Band surgery. Besides, I've had coffee before and never cared for it.

So the next step - STUFF! (Like any good hobby, you have to buy the STUFF that goes with it.)

Shopping for coffee makers was the first step. This started with Hubby checking out Craigslist. He knew he wanted a Bunn.

He got all excited when he found a commercial one at a good price. I said no way. We have Bunn's at work. I assume they are of the commercial variety. They are huge. They have room for 4-6 pots to be going at once. No.

We went to WalMart and checked out their selection. They had a single pot Bunn. It was still kind of big and we have a limited amount of counter space. I made the mistake of suggesting one of the smaller ones that had a timer, in a non-Bunn brand. The Bunn didn't have a timer.

I then received the Bunn lecture about why Bunn is so superior that it doesn't NEED a timer. It has a 2 pot heated reservoir. When you go to make coffee you pour in however much water and it overflows the already heated water by that much. This results in it instantly starting to brew. You can have a whole pot in about 3 minutes.

I was sold. Well worth the $100 price tag.

Then comes filters, coffee (regular and decaf) a travel mug to keep it warm and sweetner and half and half. You see - stuff.

So Hubby sets it all up and gets it warming so it would be ready to make a pot in the morning.

The next morning he schools me on how to make a pot. Then he talks me into trying some. It's tolerable. And, I must confess, I have dearly missed caffeine. Since it was a Saturday I went whole hog with the coffee to see how bad I would be on caffeine after so long.

I barely noticed it. Coffee must have a lot less than soda.

So I gave coffee my seal of approval. Which meant a travel mug for me too. And Hubby wanted a big thermos to have with him during the day. He found some cool spill proof mini thermos at Sports Authority. Bigger than a travel mug but smaller than the giant thermos. He had to make a second trip to go back and get one for me.

On my next shopping trip I started checking out flavorings. I wanted to go from just tolerable to enjoyable. I stopped the half and half after looking at the calories. Yikes. And using skim milk leaves it kind of flat.

So far I have tried Torani's Syrup (sugar free) in caramel and raspberry. Two thumbs up on the caramel. Half thumb for the raspberry. I think that would go better in hot chocolate. And Nestlé Coffee Mate's are just plain yummy. So far I have only tried the peppermint. Sugar free. But yummmmy!

I look forward to working my way through their flavors.

And CAFFEINE!!!

Did I Mention...

Somebody went back to school. Algebra and Accounting.

This Shouldn't Be Funny...but

Hubbys New Project

Hubby has decided the best way to keep me from complaining about his "projects" is to make it a project for me.

So he bought me this.

I love the design on it. It is just like those disposable cups.

(Testing pics. Sorry if looks bad.)

Testing

Test post from my iPhone. If this actually works you will hear from me more often then once every 3 months!

Cool!

First electric bill since the window units....

$60 less!!

Saving money and sleeping good at night!

Should have done it a long time ago.

I Love Getting To Use My Christmas Presents

One year for Christmas I asked for, and received from my in-laws, a small in house size wet/dry shop vac. It's the same one that I mentioned before, with the disappearing hose. Hubby found substitute hoses, one at the junkyard in a car, and one in the middle of the street, and I have used it several times. As a dry vac. I got to use the wet over the weekend.

I went to throw a load in the washer and found this:

Hard to capture in a picture, but it is water on the floor in front of the washing machine. Not tons, but the floor was wet. I first thought something was wrong with the washer and spent some time looking around to try and find what was leaking.

I eventually noticed this:

That is the drain hose for the washing machine. It's not supposed to be there. It is supposed to be up there in between the two water valves. Where the drain is. NOT hooked over the edge of the clothes hamper.

Luckily I was caught up on laundry (for a change) and no clothes got soaked. And I got to tell you, I was mighty impressed with that hamper. It is a nylon inner liner (the blue part), over a canvas outer part, on a plastic frame. And considering the amount of water in the hamper, it didn't leak out very much.

It wasn't as full as the water line in that second picture. Maybe about half that. Way to much to sop up with a couple of towels.

So I break out the my little shop vac. It took two times to get it all.

I highly recommend getting one of these. It's very handy. And Sears usually puts it on sale for Black Friday.

It Worked!!

When we got up this morning the tape was in disarray:

Nothing was broken or knocked off the shelves. And there was a couple of pieces of tape on the ground.

I have my suspicions of who the guilty culprit is.

Settling for a lower shelf.

Pictures For Previous Post

Can't Pass Up A Bargain

Not me. Hubby.

A car bargain anyway. Especially if it isn't running. I think he takes it as a personal challenge on his mechanical skills: how cheaply can I get it running again.

I'd show you pictures of Ruby, but Blogger.com STILL won't let me upload pictures. So you get to use your imagination.

Picture a red Trio. No body damage, but some peeling clear coat on the spoiler, hood, and door trim. Nice interior.

Picture Hubby getting to use his new toy...the Kar Kaddy.

Picture us stopping over and over and over and over because when he'd hit the brakes, the Kaddy and the Trio were swinging off to the side. A sign that one of the brakes was grabbing harder than the other.

I can't tell you how many times poor Hubby took off a Kaddy tire to adjust the brake. In the heat. Over and over.

Picture him jacking up one side of the Kaddy. Taking off the lug nuts. Taking off the tire. Taking off the big round thing over the brakes (is that the drum?). Spinning it around and around. Then putting it all back. In the heat.

Picture Hubby rolling around on the ground doing Parking Lot Yoga to stretch out the kinks in his back.

He finally struck on the idea to disable the trailer brakes all together until we get home and he could fix it properly.

So we stopped and had lunch and I stayed there and read (in the air conditioning) while he went to the hardware store and bought a doo-hickey to stick in the thingy-ma-bob.

And it worked. The Trio quit swinging to the side when he'd brake.

He ordered a new something or other and he replaced it the other day and has declared the Kar Kaddy good as new.

Handy Hubby.

A Sticky Situation

This is the top of our TV, speaker and shelf thingie in the living room. Yes, those are strips of scotch tape.

Why do we decorate our living room in such a fashion?

Because we have shelves directly over them. And because we have annoying cats who can't pass up the opportunity to sit on a high shelf. Even if the shelves already are occupied by stuff. Breakable stuff. That ends up smashed on the floor when a big fat annoying cat tries to squeeze its hairy butt somewhere it doesn't belong.

The last time they broke something and Hubby did this, it only took one jump and getting covered in tape to stop them.

The sight of a cat trying to shake scotch tape of its feet is almost worth the broken pottery.

Stop The World I - I Need To Get Off

Apparently thousands of people have signed a petition urging PBS to have Bert and Ernie get married to promote LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) acceptance.

Sesame Street's response: "...they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation."

Chillin'

An Excessive Heat Warning (an upgrade from a heat advisory) will take effect in North Texas tomorrow beginning at 7 AM and continuing through Thursday. Extremely hot temperatures, the hottest so far this year, are likely with high temperatures approaching 110 degrees.

The Fort Worth Weather Service is saying this upcoming week could be the hottest week we've seen in D/FW in TEN YEARS!

I'm ready for it:

We put a window unit in Surly Teenagers bedroom about 3 weeks ago. Her room has always been crazy hot in the summer and crazy cold in the winter. She has been greatly enjoying the coolness and is slightly less surly.

We had the theory that she could leave her bedroom door open at night and help cool the hall and possibly get our main a/c unit to shut off. It has been so crazy hot, I swear, it has run non-stop for the last month at least. I was worried about it getting over worked and deciding to call it quits. Something we CANNOT afford right now.

So the window unit for Surly Teenager. And it did actually help. I heard the a/c shut off in the middle of the night.

But now the heat has just kept going and getting worse. The house never cools down. Different rooms are varying degrees of almost cool, a little warm, warm, and down right stuffy.

At night, instead of sleeping all cuddly close with Hubby, it has turned into elbowing each other along with "scoot over-you're touching me". And lots of tossing and turning from being uncomfortable. And just not sleeping good at all.

So this morning I declared it an EMERGENCY and we made an un-budgeted purchase and got a second window unit for our bedroom.

I'm going to bed early. Good night.

Momma's got a new toy...

I tried it out on the kitchen floor and I give it an A+ for not having to get down on my knees to scrub the floor.

And of course Hubby already had his new toy (which is why he probably voluntarily bought me the Floor Mate)...

It's for towing cars, so I didn't really complain much about him buying it. I HATE having to tow with a tow strap. HATE, HATE and more HATE. This eliminates the need for tow straps.

And because nothing is ever good enough the way it comes (at least that is apparently what Hubby thinks) he added a spare tire, hand winch and utility box.

So, what happens when a couple of days later, Surly Teenager calls after we are in bed asleep and says the car won't start?

Would you guess that Hubby jumps up, yells "I'll get my car dolly!" and goes to rescue her?

Well if you do, you would be WRONG. He wouldn't even wake up. I had to go get her. And since we all know how much I know about cars, the car stayed there over night.

You would have thought he would have been dying to use his new toy. It was just a dead battery, so a car dolly would actually have been a little overkill.

But still.

(And did you notice that my new toy cost about 1/10th the cost of HIS new toy. Hmph. Someone owes me a couple of more new toys.)

I guess he meant well...

Surly Teenager was a damsel in distress. Her car wouldn't start.

A knight in shining armor with a pair of jumper cables tried to rescue her. Unfortunately, he didn't know what the heck he was doing and he hooked them up backwards - positive to negative - and they overheated and caused this damage:

Beware ladies: just because he owns jumper cables doesn't mean he knows how to use them. Do yourself a favor and learn the way it's done.

Hello? Hello?

(tap tap tap)

Is this thing on??

Greatest Invention EVER

Lazy NonTeenager had some small surgery last week (she's fine) and they had this at the hospital...

The hose "plugs" into the hospital gown. And it blows warm (or cool) air all over you! Brilliant!

I wonder if they make a portable battery powered one?

Shades!

I gots me some shades.

And not just any old ones, PRESCRIPTION ones.

First ones I have ever owned.

The Construction Continues

I Got Gotcha'd

Lazy Non-Teenager has wisely decided, after being out in the cold cruel world for the last 4 years, that maybe living at home and going to college and working part time and putting up with us horrible parents, may not be that bad after all.

Welcome back home, Lazy Non-Teenager.

So, LNT had a job interview this morning at 11. Before I left for work this morning I asked Hubby to make sure she got up in time to take a shower and get to the interview. Then about an hour before it was time, I texted LNT to remind her of the interview.

Several hours later I get a reply text: Oops.

I couldn't decide if she was being funny or not. I replied: You better be kidding. Her answer was: Hubby didn't wake her up.

Mad doesn't even begin to describe it. But I held my tongue and counted to 10 (a few hundred times) to cool down.

Then I texted back and told her to call them RIGHT THIS SECOND. I told her to apologize to them and see if they would reschedule and that she was at another appointment and thought she was going to be done in time but wasn't and she couldn't make a call.

Yes. I told her to lie. I'm such a good mom.

A few minutes later I get a phone call from her. She tells me HA-HA the interview went great and she is supposed to call them in a couple of weeks to schedule the second interview. She said she was actually awake this morning and she heard me ask Hubby to wake her up. Plus, she had set an alarm. She said my Hubby made her pretend she missed it, it was all his idea. It might have been his idea but she didn't have to go along with it. (She was all surprised that I had asked him to wake her up. She had set an alarm. She's a grown woman after all. Yeah, but I'm just not used to her being responsible. )

It's ok though. I will consider it payback for that time my BFF and I fooled my kids and hers, into believing we had won the lottery. Or that time Hubby and I put oregano in a baggie and pretended like we thought it was pot and that we had found it in her bedroom. Or that time when I woke her and her sister up in the middle of the night and told them it was morning and they got ready for school and only figured it out when they went to go get in the car and it was dark outside. Or that time....

It Just Doesn't Pay To Be Nice

I got backed into at the Walmart parking lot the other day. I had backed out of my spot and had just put the car in drive and WHAMMO.

A car backing out on my left hits me.

I waited a second before I stopped the car and got out, because I wanted to make sure they stopped their car as well. The space they were coming from was empty in front of them and I had visions of them pulling through and taking off.

But she stopped, so I got out.

The damage wasn't bad. A dent in the panel by the wheel well and a little of the door panel.

Of course her car was barely even damaged. There were scrapings of black paint on the bumper is all.

She was very nice and was very apologetic. Even said it was her fault, that she didn't look. She was concerned about if I was hurt and I assured her I was fine.

We exchanged names, address and phone numbers. She asked if we
could do private pay instead of through the insurance. I said I would have to talk to my husband and I would let her know.

I'm sure you see were this going.

I have left messages for her requesting the insurance info and she wasn't calling back.

This morning I get a message from her saying she talked to the police and they said I was at fault so she wasn't going to give me her insurance info.

She hit me. How is it at all possible that it was my fault?

I'm going to talk to the police too and see what they say.

I'm betting I end up having to take her to small claims court. But that's ok. I have a witness. LazyNonTeenager was in the car with and saw the whole thing.

Under Construction