Scratchin' my head

Phone call as related to me...

A  So Wednesday I went to Kroger's . . .

B  Oh we don't have Kroger's here

A  But you have things like supermarkets, right?

B  Yea

A  So on Wednesday after *pm the cooking people cook and you can watch them and for a quarter you get to eat what they make and you get 2 ounces of wine. Last night for 1 dollar I got a wine buzz.

So here is my question, did she eat all four meals or did she steal 3 people's wine?

And is it fair that we laugh at her?  She is a friend from high school and stays in touch with Florida Girl and the odd times she calls the information she gives is beyond bizarre. Actually I am amazed she is not in prison, she has done nothing wrong, but her husband is total toady creep and the prisons are full of innocent people and she is one of them. Trust me.

See No Evil

I have this great ability to not see what I don't want to see. I mean this literally. When we lived on the farm when we first were married I never saw the snakes after the first one. The first one was in a cement block hole in the ground, probably an old cellar. I walked up on my first visit to the house and there the snake was in the cement block thing. Now our little farm house was surrounded by fields of crops in the country and  I never saw another snake. Big Daddy was amazed, he said they were in the shrubs around porch and I never saw one. We had a little dog we got at the pound, about 10 pounds and short haired. I named him Scottyskins and he lived to kill snakes. I never knew. Big Daddy never told me these things until we moved.

The mind is an amazing thing. I sometimes call it self preservation.

My laundry room is in the basement. I think all basements are scary and that they probably have ghosts, criminals, and dead animals lurking about. Even though mine is referred to as a rec room, ceiling and floors and such, it is still a basement. And now the light in the laundry room is going kaput. It is one of those long things in the ceiling. There used to be 2 and now there is one, and it is gasping it's last breath. I can barely see it for the puffy shit hanging all over the laundry room that I am told is what the hot air goes through to heat our house.

I need a glass of wine. And I need to whine to Big Daddy that if I can't go downstairs when he is in Mexico it will be a horrible time for me, grieving and such for clean clothes and items in the pantry. Oh yes, the pantry is located in the laundry room.

I also cannot see the entire middle of the basement taken up by Punkin Head's, hmmm things.
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Okay a day or so later and I have quit whining. BD got a new light bulb for the basement and looked into getting a new transformer so the other light can also get a new bulb. Sammy is the happiest pup on the block as we are having the January thaw early and he can stay out a bit longer and wander a bit as the snow is receding.

Punkin Head has a big interview this afternoon and I have a introduction interview tomorrow morning. The other one did not work out and I am wondering if I am asking for too much money in the initial conversation with the recruiters. There is just a limit on how much money I will do that job for. I guess I don't need the money that bad. But that job was brutal in hours and expectations plus having to drive through the bowels of the cities dodging crack ho's and meth heads. Two of the plants I went to had murders, one multiple and those are only the ones I know of.

If this is not going to work out I may have to start looking for a "pin money" job, just to get out of the house and have something to do. I am going to join a gym in the next week or so, but that is not enough to keep me occupied in the winter. Will let you know tomorrow how things are working out.

I feel like complaining

We had 2 lightbulbs burn out in the kitchen this week. They are the new GE 4 times higher cost than regular light bulbs guaranteed for 5 years bulbs. They lasted for 11 months. Yes, they are guaranteed. If you still have your receipt you can mail them in and if you pay for shipping to your home they will replace them at no charge. Right. Just one more shitty company making rules no one can follow. Fie on you GE, this is the company where the head honcho thinks our government should emulate China as us regular folks are too stupid to make decisions.

I finished one of my Christmas books, "Jacobson's, I miss it so", by Bruce Allen Kopytek. It is the story of the greatest department store we ever had in Michigan. I remember back in the day I would get a telephone call just when I was running out of mascara from Carol. She was my makeup lady. If I did not have time to go in she would fill an order, put in samples and Fed Ex it to my house. Wonderful woman. And when they had end of season sales, those were real sales. And you saw everyone at Jacobson's. Now the stores are just crap. I went to Nordstrom last week and it just was tacky, sparse the sales staff was lacking in customer service. I think you should hold your personal interest conversations on your time not mine.

Now I am reading an old Lisa Scottoline I missed from 2000. I can't decide which book I will read next.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks

I call bullshit on that one.

That is my old dog, Remy, 5 pounds of hell oh wheels. He is in quarantine at the groomers. This is after he escaped the groomer, terrorized all the other dogs by running up to each cage and barking at them and biting the owner 3 times. And he only has a few teeth. I remember when I used to brush him he would bite the brush so hard some times his mouth would bleed. He was the cutest damn dog but so ornery. Keep in mind he created all this havoc on three legs. One of his front legs was broken as a very young pup and it took Michigan State University and over 5 grand to save that leg-and it never was the same. His new owners love him to death and apparently do not dispense any discipline. And he scared Sammy.  Note-we had to give him up when we moved to China.

Which brings us to the next photo, one of our gifts from the kids. Does that not look like our Sammy Spanky dog? I think this is hilarious.

And this guy created no problems at the groomer. And he is not a spoiled brat.

Late Christmas

One of the mansions on Lakeshore

Well we had our Christmas last night with the kids. We got Punkin Head an Aeropress coffee maker, it is a small plastic thing that you pour your cup of hot water in and it makes the best coffee outside of using a 700 dollar espresso machine. It is so lightweight and small it is easy to pack. We also got him the small electric grinder so he is now set and does not need to go out for coffee. He is like his dad and picky about the coffee. I do appreciate a nice cup of coffee but in the morning I will drink the Krups pot dry.

Oh we also gave Punkin Head one of our iron skillets. We still have around 6, we collected them for years. But just how many do you need and Punkin Head wanted one so I got Big Daddy to take care of that wish. And it was already seasoned. It still needs more seasoning though.

The kids got us some nice books which I will talk about later. The Fiancee liked The Cats book I got from Pearl,thanks Pearl,. I said it was about the Minneapolis Biteys and she said Liza Bean and I cracked up. We had a nice dinner, ordered in from The Dish and a nice time was had by all.

When Big Daddy went out this morning the whole town smelled like booze, as in dark colored whiskey. We were not sure if the Slavs were cooking up a holiday concoction until BD went further into town and the smell got stronger. The Canadian Club distillery is just across the lake where it meets the river so I suspect something happened there. And his trip out this morning leads to tomorrow's post . . .

I need to get my believer fixed

It is wintertime.

Because I just cannot believe some of the shit that happens here in Motown. Every once in while some asshat decides to get nekkid and then get drunk, or visa versa, and go out and drive around town. How do I know this, they always end in the paper thanks to our fabulous law enforcement folks. And they are usually "somebody" or at least "somebody" most people know. The latest is a Priest from across town.

The other amazing thing about the nekkid, drunk driving around town people is the current temperature this morning was 19 degrees F. Now the summertime nekkid people you just have to think are stupid but what wacko decides to rip all their clothes off when it is well below freezing outside. And don't even mention heated seats, I am thinking that could get mighty uncomfortable.

A while back one of our Detroit Lions football assistant coaches went through the drive-thru at Wendy's while nekkid and drunk. What truly amazes me is that this is a common occurrence here in Motor City. I don't hear of this happening in other cities but here at home driving while nekkid is just part of living the Detroit Dream.

New Years Resolutions

Remember the bird house guy, his Christmas decor.

I have made a few for the New Year, this is actually new for me, I never did this shit before. As you can see swearing made the list, I will continue with this habit.

Our entire lives were turned upside down and back again; we survived, prevailed and actually had a few good times-and we are now on the good side for this bright and shiny new year. So I have made a list of resolutions and I am mapping out a plan. Some of this should remain secret, at least until I must drag it out to be inspected.

The 2nd or 3rd resolution is to celebrate something every month. January does not have a lot of possibilities for a full out extravaganza. Some of the January holidays I cannot pronounce. Epiphany is a church holiday and I am not familiar with those rituals. However I found one that is right up my alley. Australia Day is January 26. I looked up the ways to celebrate this holiday and the only one we can do here is to eat Australian food. The pool will be closed on January 26, I guess they all have pool parties.

We are done cooking extravagant meals, our last hurrah was the Billionaires Bacon on Tuesday. We did have the black eyed peas for luck which we could not do last year. I can't talk about my books until after we have Christmas with the children. I have read a few from the library and I was amazed how many ebooks are the only volume readily available on the library site. I have had to order the last few books and Fatal Vision turned out to be a thick paperback from the Ann Arbor library. Right now I have Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift, I missed it and Florida Girl really liked it. And I finally finished Widow Of the South and decided to not read a follow up book, it looked too damn depressing.