Friday, April 22, 2016

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm.....

Is anyone else as sick of the politics bullshit as I am?  I am so tired of hearing about it all.  All of the candidates that are still in the race suck.  ALL of them.  I just hope that whomever ends up becoming president doesn't screw our country up even worse than it already is.  (and I'm not placing the blame for our current condition on any one president, current or former - there's been a lot of mistakes made in the last 20 years or so, on both sides of the political aisle).


ENOUGH about politics WTF was I thinking even bringing it up!  LOL  I'm just really tired of all the negativity and moronic shit I've heard from both sides.


Kita pees like a boy dog sometimes.  It's the funniest thing to see - she'll sniff out a spot by a tree or other object, walk just a little past, back up until her butt is almost touching the object, squat a little and lift her leg like she's gonna do a girly pee, then straighten up her leg and aim her butt at the object, peeing on it.  She likes to pee where the boys have peed, marking over theirs to show her dominance.  I have never seen a girl dog do this before.


My riding lawn mower has almost seen it's last days.  *Someone* (NOT me) was riding it to cut the grass on the outside of the fence and got hung up on some kind of metal bar that was coming up out of the dirt, and the deck spindle broke apart, and one of the pulleys is bent all to hell.  Thankfully the parts don't seem to be too terribly expensive (less than $40 for both), so maybe we'll be able to get it running again.  Of course both of our push mowers are out of service at the moment, so Brian had to borrow the neighbor's old push mower to finish cutting the grass.  I think he's gonna work on getting our push mowers operational again, too, as they are easier to use in some spots than the riding mower anyway.


And we're probably gonna have to get a new weed eater, as I may have burned it up the last time I used it.  It's an electric one, and I was weed eating a lot, and then I started smelling smoke and looked and sure enough it was smoking.  I don't know if it's cause it's old and worn out, or if I used it too much without letting it cool periodically (I don't think that's it, as I've used it for as long prior and didn't have a problem).  I set it out in the yard that night so if it ended up catching fire, it wouldn't burn down our house, and I haven't tried it out again.  Maybe this weekend. 


And now for some great news - I've been nominated for Employee of the Quarter at work!  There's a brunch they're holding in a couple of weeks where they will announce the winner, and  I can't wait to see who wins.  I honestly wasn't expecting to be nominated for this, but am tickled pink at the honor. 


I'm hoping we'll get our garden fence up tomorrow, and then can plant our garden this weekend.  We're 2-3 weeks behind last year, but we did have some really cold weather in the last couple of weeks, so that's ok.  Our garden would have continued producing another month last fall if we had let it go on.  This year, our garden fence will be permanent (we're putting it up ourselves, to keep the dogs out), so we'll be able to plant fall veggies like collards and such.  Yummy!


Y'all have a great weekend!

Sunday, April 17, 2016

My Weekend Adventure, and Other Stories

Yesterday, Clydie and I took the pups to the pet store to get microchipped.  They had a special running for $7 each, for lifetime registration, and I couldn't pass that up.  Kita was the primary concern for getting chipped, as she is the escape artist and marathon runner, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to also get the boys chipped in case they got out, or were stolen.

Clydie and I came home from a morning errand, and I dosed the pups with a homeopathic anxiety relief product that we have counted on many times for trips to the lake and other places.  I dosed everyone up, and the photo below shows what my pants looked like after I finished wrangling with the mutts:




I kept the hairy pants on for the trip to the pet store, and decided I would wait to change until we got finished and I knew I could avoid being covered up again like a sasquatch. 

The last time that Clydie and I tried to handle both the boys on our own, it didn't end so well for Clydie - she got tripped up by a very over-excited Dominion, and fell, hitting her head on a car parked next to us.  Thankfully she was okay, but we had 3 dogs to deal with this time instead of 2, and I didn't want a repeat of that accident.  We made the decision to have Kita ride with Clydie in her car, and I took the boys with me, and we would meet at the store and go in together.  Kita is normally pretty calm with Clydie, as if she is aware that Clydie cannot run down the stairs and move as fast as her other grown ups, so we wrongly assumed that would be the case with this trip.  Unfortunately, this is almost what happened:


I managed to get Kita's leash from Clydie and had to wrestle 3 full-grown huskies through the store.  I don't ever mind, though, I'd rather it be me getting hurt than Clydie or anyone else.  I smartly wore my sneakers, otherwise my feet would have been pulled out from under me on the slick store tile floor.  All 3 pups calmed down when we got in line and they had to stay where they were (and the vet lady moved the dogs in front of us out of their sight). 

Once it was our turn, I took all 3 into the exam room for their chips, and Kita did NOT want to be in there, she kept trying to get out, so the decision was made that one dog at a time would go into the room, and Clydie would stay with them while I held the leashes for the other 2.  They finished with Kita, so then it was Dominion's turn.  He was not having any of it, planted his feet and would not go with the vet tech.  Clydie walked with him in there, and he was fine.  Gabriel didn't give a shit when it was his turn, he'll go with anyone that's kind to him, so he went in alone while Clydie comforted Dominion. 

When it was time to go, I had all 3 dogs again and it was hilarious.  They could not get out of that store fast enough, plowing into anyone that was in their way!  If someone was standing there, Dominion would try to go to the left, leaving the other 2 dogs to the right of the person.  Many times I would have to stop well ahead of time and pull them all to the right to get around the person standing there.  We got to the parking lot and I put Kita in Clydie's car and the boys again rode with me, and home we went. 

Now why, you  might ask, were Clydie and I left to accomplish this task on our own?  Easy - Brian had drill, and Steven was at the Georgia Renaissance Festival with his girlfriend, Hope.  This was the only weekend we could do it, as the special ends at the end of the month and yesterday was the only time the vet clinic was happening at the pet store.  $7 each for 3 dogs is a lot better than $20 each for 3 dogs.  :-)

Speaking of Steven and the GA Renaissance Festival, here's a photo they had made:

My handsome son and his beautiful girlfriend. 

I haven't gotten much of anything else done this weekend, other than framing a couple photos for Steven and getting the dogs microchipped.  I cooked dinner last night, and have got it started for tonight, but that's it.  It's just a lazy kind of weekend, and I'm okay with that.  We've got to get the fence up around our garden area before we can plant, and maybe that's something that can get worked on this week so that we can plant next weekend.  I hope I hope!

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend, and have a great Monday tomorrow!




Sunday, April 10, 2016

Some spring we are having - had a frost warning for this morning.  Yes, on April 10, a freaking frost warning.  I'm so glad we haven't planted the garden yet!  Brian re-tilled it and applied more fertilizer yesterday, and we're hoping we get to plant everything later in the week.


I've been seeing a Health Coach at the hospital gym, and in going over my vitals, she noticed that my resting heart rate is a bit on the high side.  I mentioned to her that I usually hit that 85% targeted heart rate pretty quickly into a workout, without much exertion, and after reviewing my family history, she strongly recommended that I have a stress test to check out my ticker.  I made the appointment and had it done last week



Yep, that little flash of a photo is me, all wired up for my stress test.  The treadmill is fun.  NOT  But seriously, it really wasn't all that bad, got up to a 14% incline, a 3.2mph pace.  I typically walk about that speed or a little faster on a flat surface when I'm walking to exercise, but I'm not used to doing the inclines, so I was breathing pretty hard when we finished.  It was a nurse practitioner and her trainee, along with a nurse, in the room monitoring everything, and they all said I did fine.  The cardiologist will read the results and forward them over to my primary care physician, and then we're done.  I consider it done now, because they all said if they'd seen anything of any concern on the test, I wouldn't have been allowed to leave the facility until the physician immediately reviewed everything and examined me himself.   So, I just have a high heart rate, I'm guessing because I am so freaking out of shape!  I'm working on improving that, but it won't get fixed overnight.  (sorry Ma, I didn't let you know ahead of time but I didn't want to worry you unless I knew there was something to actually worry about!)

Dominion is doing well with his breakfast and sometimes dinner feedings.  He has gotten up yesterday and today, gone outside, then is restless and almost dances around, trying to tell us that he's ready for breakfast.  I fixed it for him and he just dances and prances when you're walking over to put it down for him to eat.  Because he's isolated from the others, he takes his time eating instead of wolfing it down, so it stays down and we can tell a difference in him, he's not quite as bony as just 2 weeks ago.

I have been the victim of another prank - my husband poured baby oil all over the toilet seat, just a few days after the PopIts incident.  Luckily, he was too heavy handed with the oil and it had spilled into the water and I saw the globs of it floating on the surface, so I didn't plop down and slide off into the floor.  Cleaning that stuff off is not fun.  Steven finds this shit quite funny, pranking his poor old mom and the toilet.  LOL

I made another homemade laundry detergent yesterday.  The previous one we made was supposed to be a thick, gelatinous liquid, but it's kinda clumpy and has no real smell to it.  It was difficult to make (maybe because I didn't take the time to watch the video - the soap shavings clumped into one big ball and it too FOREVER to dissolve), so I decided that I didn't think I wanted to make that one again.  I had some leftover ingredients from that batch, and made up a batch of powdered detergent as follows:

1 bar Dial soap
1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Powders
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup OxyClean

In all the directions I've seen for homemade laundry detergents, the type o f bar soap used varies from Zote soap, castile soap, FelsNaptha, or regular bath bar soap of your choosing.  I used the Dial because it we had it on hand, and it's that spring waters scent which is very clean smelling without being too perfumy or overpowering.  Anywho, here's how I mixed all this stuff up:

I used the grater blade on my food processor to grate the Dial like little small cheese curls, then I poured it out into a bowl. I then switched the blade to the blender blade, and put the powdered ingredients into the processor and ran it for a moment to blend those together.  I put the soap shavings back into the processor with the powder, and ran it for a few minutes, stopping to stir and check the blending.  In doing it this way, the processor chopped the soap shavings up into little fine pieces, and evenly blended everything together.  It only takes a tablespoon of this detergent for an average load, and this recipe should yield enough detergent for about 30-40 loads of clothes.  And I still have enough ingredients (well, other than baking soda) to make another 3-4 batches of this.  This stuff is so much more economical than buying a jug or box of most of the commercial laundry detergents, and I'm all about saving $.  :-)  Plus you can change the scent up by using a different type of bar soap, or can add those scent enhancers like Gain Fireworks or Purex Crystals to the mix.

I'm finishing my laundry up today, and who knows what else I'll get into.  I still haven't started on my quilt that I want to make for Meme.  Maybe I'll work on that today since we can't plant outside yet.  I started a summer scarf recently, too, a pretty lacy looking pattern, in a pale lavender color.  I've been doing a couple of rows every couple of days, and have got about 5" of scarf finished.  I know, I'm slow. 

Well I guess I should get my butt up off this couch and find something to get into.  I hope everyone's had a great weekend so far, and has a wonderful Sunday.  It's Beer Can Burgers for us for dinner tonight, hit me up if you want the recipe (and believe it or not, there's no alcohol involved in the burgers).



Sunday, April 3, 2016

April....already?????

I cannot believe that it's already April.  Where the hell does the time go?  I know I've been terrible at writing, and I can't promise that it will get better.  I always have so much I want to share, but for one reason or another, I just don't feel like sitting down to write it all out for the world to read.  It takes a lot more concentration than I seem to have these days in order to put together coherent thoughts, and a lot of motivation to make the time to write.  There are so many things in my life that fall by the wayside, due to lack of concentration or zero motivation, and for those of you I let down because of my shortcomings, I'm sorry.  But I'm here for the moment, and here's what I have to share for now:


Gabriel attacked Dominion Sunday before last.  I had let Dominion outside in the backyard, by himself, and did not realize that he was sick and had thrown up.  When I called for him to come in, he wandered aimlessly and acted like he didn't hear me, not even turning his ears towards my voice.  Gabriel wanted to go down, so I let him.  He went straight over to Dominion and jumped him.  They sounded terrible, and I was yelling at them and trying to get to them to make them stop.  When I finally reached them, they hesitated for a moment after I pulled Gabriel's tail, and I tried grabbing Gabriel's collar.  He turned towards me, probably thinking I was Dominion or another dog attacking him, and snapped at me so I pulled back.  Dominion ended up putting both his legs over Gabriel's shoulders, sort of pushing down, and Gabriel submitted to him and then ran off.  What was the fight over?  Vomit.  Dominion had a bite puncture on one of his front legs, but it is healing up nicely. 


Ever since this episode, Dominion has been intimidated by Gabriel.  Gabriel will guard the door and not let Dominion enter unless one of us pushes Gabriel out of the way and gives Dominion strong encouragement to enter.  Gabriel has taken to guarding the food at times, although he is not food aggressive with us, allowing us to remove the food bowls.  We've started giving Dominion canned food mixed in with his dry food, feeding him alone so that there are no fights over the special food.  Dominion needs to gain a little weight - last year at the vet he weighed about 47lbs, and I think he's lost a couple pounds.  Gabriel has gained 11lbs from last year, and is up to 65lbs. 


Kita continues to get along fairly well with both Dominion and Gabriel, but there have been more skirmishes between her and Gabriel the last couple weeks. I think Gabriel starts it, but Kita finishes it.  She probably weighs around 55lbs, and is solid muscle.  She is a dog that will take no shit from either of the boys.


Steven pranked me the other day, putting Pop-Its under the toilet seat so that when I sat down, there were loud pops.  I swore several cuss words and ran out of the bathroom, yelling down the hallway "which one of you MFers did it?"  Steven was quite proud of himself, point at himself.  We all had a good laugh and then I had to change clothes.  LOL


One of Brian's buddies gave him a tiller last weekend, and after a lot of work and just a little bit of $ (less than $30), he got it running and has tilled out our garden patch, expanding it from last year.  This year's patch is a little more than double last year's size.  He's moving the non-exotic peppers to the garden, saving his pepper patch for the scorpions and reapers.  We have several different peas and beans to sow, and this weekend we picked up some yellow straightneck squash, zucchini, cucumbers, jalapenos, habaneros, serranos, and I have some carrot seeds to plant as well.  Looks like Brian is going to be a planting fool this coming week!


I get irritated with some people.  Someone posted on a page that they are giving away their puppy because they don't have a fenced in yard.  Another person posted "so what, just put them on a chain".  As if a dog living on a chain gives it any kind of life.  It's one thing if you put it on one of those pulley systems so that they have a larger area to roam in your yard, but it's cruel, not to mention illegal in many areas, to leave a dog on a chain on a daily basis, in and out all day and night long.  Runners are great when you need to let a dog out to go potty, but shouldn't be used as a permanent solution. 


I know I had a lot more to write than this, but I don't remember it all and this post is long enough as it is.    I hope you all are enjoying your weekend, and didn't fall victim to any April Fools Day pranks!