It was bound to happen

We had a relief mail person yesterday. Ilena. I know this because we had a long conversation. This was because she was afraid of the Sammy dog. He has this habit of running and chasing as if he is the kin of junkyard dogs. I think he pretends his former owner was bad, bad Leroy Brown. He barks as if his life depends on taking over the block.

This is only when he is outside and someone approaches the property or the black dog and old lady are wandering about. When the cop banged on the door and woke me up he never raised his head or moved. When he asks out it is the softest bark ever.

I told her he was fine, he only has 4 or 5 teeth. He wants you to rub his belly. She was not buying this and stayed far away from the beast. Then the little asshole growled at her. For all that is holy this dog is no threat. Why he would growl at her I don't know he and Oscar get along great. Oscar is the regular mail man, I know this because Ilena told me his name.

She also told me I should be very careful letting Sammy out because of the huge hawk population in the Pointes. I mean really if someone is going to see hawks eating and grabbing up small animals and flying off with them, who better than the mail person who walks the routes everyday? Was she being kind or getting back at The Terror?

I remember watching that eagle tear up that squirrel in the front yard, it was not pretty. And that bird was huge in comparison to the hawks I see around here. I wonder what the ratio of bird to prey weight factor is. I am not a math person but there has to be a general spec on this.

Cleaning up my thoughts

This is Big Daddy's favorite clock in the world, it is at his mom's house. It is very old and has a lot of wooden gears and mechanisms. It has been in the family forever. It was in the original farmhouse and he thinks his great grandfather acquired it but he does not know the story. BD remembers as a boy there were about 15 clocks and that every day he would help his grandpa wind them up.

Goodness I just looked at that title and cracked up. I meant to say finishing up with any stray thoughts, but I will leave the title because it made me laugh.

These are just a few of the antique books, I think this might explain Punkin Head's interest in Library Science. I still have a few books here he borrowed and they are still in my little book case.

Watched Liz&Dick on a repeat showing Monday night. I went to bed halfway through the movie. I feel sorry for "Lilo" as they call her. Who the hell thinks they can portray Elizabeth Taylor so soon after her death. Especially if you have no bosom.

So I have run out of things to say today. Except Pearl left a comment yesterday about DVD's at pawn shops. I asked Big Daddy if he thought that was true and he said it could be, they are worth a lot more here than in China. I may have to check out our local pawn shop which I believe is on the TV as a smarmy show. I went into the local pawn shop in China, it was not far from my apartment. They had very small items  very carefully displayed, kinda like a tacky Saks if you can picture it. The prices were quite high but I thought that could reflect not seeing gold and diamonds in China very often. I never asked to see anything as I had no interest in purchasing so I don't know what they would have taken versus the asking price. Thanks Pearl, a new adventure The Pawn Shop.

Entertainment Reviews

Some recent movies, books and television shows demand my reviews. That is sad as I am not known as a great reviewer. More of a voracious consumer of these items. The tackier the better it seems.

The Girl, HBO movie with a bunch of nobody actors. Sienna Miller is the star and I have barely heard of her. She is playing Tippi Hedren in 2 Alfred Hitchcock movies,  The Birds and Marnie. The whole movie was creepy and she was no Tippi Hedren. And then there is the ick factor that once again someone waited for the other person to die to tell their story. And she always looked like her hair was fake and the big thing in the movie was natural blonds for Hitchcocks's obsession. Bad Hair was the star.

Treme season finale, it is getting better and worse. The next season is the last so we will see how it rises to the occasion or ends up in the trash bins of hell. LaDonna who owns Gigi's deserves her own damn show. But sometimes Gigi seems to have nasty nails like she forgot her manicure appointment. I was there after the storm and manicures were important.

Survivor Philippines is the best reality show I have seen in years. Lisa Welchel from the Facts of Life is on and so far very few people recognize her. This season there are actually some players and it is fun watching. This show improved about 1000 percent. It does make me wonder though why some people have dirty fingernails and some don't. I mean you can go down to the sand and surf and scrub your hands and feet so what is the problem with the grubby people?

The Price Of Politics by Bob Woodward, God knows I tried to slog through this book. I have liked Bob in the past and this one just killed me. It was like reading the paper and reading the book and reading the paper and reading the book. Someone stop this merry-go-round. Quit halfway.

Mad River by John Sandford, a Virgil Flowers novel that was phoned in. I hate that. And I usually love John and Virgil.

Boardwalk Empire, the last show is the best ever. On the edge of my seat. Why in the world would I root for a gangster and sniper? Because they are the nicest of the whole cast. And I loved it when Nucky's hair looked greasy when he was on the run.

Netflix, Country Strong with Gywneth, this was the worst movie in recent times.

666 Park Avenue, I am sorry this has not been renewed because I love a little paranormal but this chick needs a toner on that hair now. Yellow hair is not good even if you are scared out of your skin. But I did love at the end when she got out of the hospital and went home and tried to open something she had really nasty nails. You just can't get a decent manicure in the hospital if you are nobody.

Next up reading is Low Pressure by Sandra Brown, still have not seen Liz&Dick on Lifetime and I have a list for Amazon.

Once upon a time

The bitter end. The remains of the stump.

There once was a tree in front of the farm house, the tree was 75 feet tall, more than 20 years before it fell down. The measurement was calculated by the angle of the sun versus the length of the shadow, Big Daddy says it was trig thing that he used. This was confirmed by the cousin who climbed as high as he could with a rope in hand.  BD says the circumference of the trunk was 9 feet. Actually there were 2 trees but the first one died by a lightening strike. The second had the same fate, lightening struck again. Anyhoo there was a huge stump left and my MIL always talked about getting rid of it but she never did anything about it.

Then one day this summer there was a terrible storm and lightening struck again, this time at the old farmhouse barns.

The barns were used for cows, originally a dairy farm and then pigs were added. The barns were quite sturdy with the floors laid like bowling alleys-maple floors laid 2inches up for strenght. All of the beams were held together with wooden pegs. The foundation was boulders and the silo was probably limestone slabs.

The two big barns were ignited by the lightening and burned down. It is amazing nothing else burned. An ember from this fire flew to the stump in front of BD's  family home, 300 yards away approx. and burned out the old pine stump. The fire department said the smoke was so thick they could hardly check the property. Thank goodness MIL was at the lake and did not have to evacuate and witness this.

The original family home, above, and the small tutor's house next door were unscathed. There is a large structure behind the old house that was the wood shed, it is original wood and in my mind scary old and dry wood and it survived. Amazing. The family no longer owns the original house above, nor the tutor's house or the barns so I was kind of trespassing to get the pictures.

BD saved all the pictures he could from the video fiasco and I hope he enjoyed seeing the pics. None of the family members wanted to see the devastation so I went with my wacko BIL. My MIL suggested we take the shortcut thru the bush but I told her I was a pavement kind of gal. And of course I had open toe heels and on the way back I got sand in my shoes. WTF. That is me though, I also moved households in heels-I am not a hiking shoe kinda gal. Dress for looking good and then wade through the scrub. Punkin Head used to get mad at me for wearing "prancers" and then complaining my feet hurt on vacation.

Snowdust

The last leaves in the backyard from the Maple tree. This tree is always the last one in the neighborhood to drop the leaves. I am so glad Big Daddy mulched them all up yesterday afternoon because . . . .

Last night we got our first dusting of snow. And wet leaves are no fun.

Sammy had to decide which he hated worse, the cold crispy grass or the snow. The grass is his new favorite. We got the shovels out, the broom and pooper scooper, the snowblower and the big lighted wreath on the front porch. Guess we are ready on the outside now we have to work on the inside. Sanding blocks are needed.

Spatchcocking

Camper for a family of 6

This camper has sat in the back of the in-laws yard for years. It is used for storage. I have told my MIL for years to sell it, people pay good money for these and renovate them. She said every once in a while someone stops and wants to take it off her hands for free. Hah, I say, there was a show on TV about clubs for people with these campers.

Every year we have our own Thanksgiving dinner, Big Daddy has to cook his own turkey to be happy and that is happening today. He is cooking a butterflied turkey which he tells me is spatchcocked turkey. I think he is planning on grilling outdoors; I am not sure if he will do that as it is supposed to snow today. There were flurries yesterday afternoon.  I think we missed our opportunity for a fire in the chiminea with all the leaves it is too dangerous.

Today is garbage day and then the last cleaning of the eaves troughs as all the leaves are off the maple tree. Then we can finish the sanding of the plaster and prepare to paint. Hooray.

I had some great pictures for a tale of woe but instead of taking pictures I took video. If I can't fix it I will be sad.

The old homestead

Big Daddy grew up on a farm and his mom still lives there. It is a Centennial Farm, the same family has owned and lived there for over 100 years. BD thinks that his family home was originally the caretakers house.

This is the land across the street my MIL rents out, it is planted with corn and this time of year at dusk she watches the deer from her living room.

There are many antiques and signs of the past on the property. I have more pictures to share with their stories at a later time.

My tomato pie was a big hit as was BD's sausage nut stuffing. Punkin Head made herbed biscuits and The Fiancee did a fantastic job with roasted vegetables. And of course pecan pie. I need to learn how to make pretty pie crust.

There was a huge sale at Brooks Brothers this morning but only for 2 hours. BD bounded out of the house at 9:30 only to be stymied when he reached Fisher Road. There was also a Christmas Parade at about the same time. When he called to bitch I said "get pictures".

This is it, he said he wasn't waiting for Santa, he had shirts to purchase.

Back to normal

My hair is back to normal and it only took 2 and 1/2 hours. My hairdresser said next time I suggest a change she will throw in some highlights or low lights and call it good.

The fog was so thick today I could not see the water or more than 100 feet in front of the car. So no picture taking.

Making lentils and sausage for dinner. We have everything for the Thanksgiving feast so that should be easy. Oh I forgot, we need to buy the wine that Punkin Head tells us to buy. Not looking forward to the trip but it is what it is.

Update, Punkin Head says to buy a Barbara or a Brunella at Trader Joe's or a more expensive La Crema Pinot Noir. I will let you know. I told him the trick of taking wine over the river and through the woods to grandma's house, take twice what you think you need and leave it in the car. Bring in a couple of bottles at a time and if the cheapo wine sucking relatives did not bring anything or only want to suck yours down, you have reserves.

Okay tomorrow we have to cook, yes the tomato pie again, and Thursday is travel day. I may not be back with you my fine blog friends until the weekend. Have a happy holiday or a happy week whichever one works for you.

This is not right

Those big lumps in the front are mud lumps. I asked Big Daddy what could make mud lumps like that and he did not know. Those are geese in the background and you can't see it but a swan in the right rear.

The water here used to be at least 4 feet deeper. There is some talk that the river from Lake Huron is silted up and the EPA will not allow dredging. Don't know if that is true but the upper lakes are supposed to be way high.

My newly elected 8 time convicted felon state rep has had his Land Rover repo'd since the Novemeber 6 election. This is getting serious as he previously had a Jag repo'd and the rumor is he only had 4 cars and was being evicted from his house for bouncing checks. Were do we find these upstanding people to vote into office.

And the biggest thing not right is my scary hair. Tomorrow is rework day. I would take a picture but I really do not want any reminder of this hair.

Harvesting the back 40

Don't say it.

Freshly harvested horseradish

No matter where we go we always have a back 40. In China both the front and back balcony served as our garden plots. We grew herbs and peppers and lots of flowers that died pretty quick.

Now that we are back at home and trying to get the garden and landscaping back under control  we have made huge efforts to mulch. This weekend during the mulching we noted the horseradish leaves had heaved over and given in to the cold and frost. That means we can dig up the roots. Hurray. Not really, have you ever really smelled this stuff.

The first year Big Daddy planted the horseradish is the year he was exiled to China before the hard frost came. We had never harvested or worked with this stuff before.

We are making prepared horseradish. It makes your entire house smell and it makes your eyes burn. It is some nasty stuff. Big Daddy added some vinegar, salt and sugar in the food processor and we have something that is excellent. Note: Some people use the old fashioned grinder outside for this reason, but the smell does not last that long.

We ended up with about a quart of finished product. And it is some hot stuff.

Me and Jerry Lewis

The Shores have started the Holiday decorations but it looks like this year they are only doing every other lamp post. How chintzy.

Every once in a while I check my stats. Mostly when I am bored and no one else posted on their blog yet.

I noticed a week or so ago big changes in my stats. An odd older post being read by tons of people and different countries were showing up in the audience. Not a random country as I know a couple of people who travel a lot but strange countries and a huge shift in readers. Suddenly people in the U.S. were not reading my blog so much, and Russia turned her back on my too. But somehow I had attracted a huge following in France. Now more people in France read my blog than all other countries combined.

Do you think it is because my dog is half French Poodle? Or that someone discovered my intense love of Foie Gras and French Fries? I might have to get a French manicure even if they are tired and dated. I do have the fleur de lis trivet I bought in China. Vive la France.

And they make some mighty fine wine.

No good deed goes unpunished

I collect jewelry and one the types is gutta percha. It is commonly mourning jewelry from the Victorian era made of early resin. I read something recently that reminded me of a lovely gutta percha brooch I gave my mother for Christmas one year. This was before she became a born again Jew and stopped celebrating pagan holidays. Anyway I called to ask her if she had kept the brooch.

Well, she was not at home as she was running the kitchen for the bingo game in her neighborhood. Mr. RV answered the phone and wanted to talk so I listened for quite a while. No skin off my nose and he seemed to want to talk to someone new. Today is a big day for them, he is going into the hospital for a real crappy test so I said don't worry about me, tell mom to call me this weekend.

Mom called anyway. We chatted about the brooch, yes she has it. Then the line went dead. I did not think much about, it happens once in a while. There is something wrong and we never have figured out the problem. I locked up and went on to bed. Big Daddy was in Chicago so just me and Sammy home alone.

I awakened suddenly to a loud knocking on my front door. I am terrified, who is knocking on my door at 9 pm. I went into the living room and there is a man staring into my house, he is standing on the front porch. He sees me and then shines a flashlight onto his police badge. I have to go turn off the alarm and I opened the door to this nice policeman who knows my name (probably from last time) and he asks if I am okay. You see, my mother called the police to tell them my phone quit working and told them to come to my house and see if I am okay. Yep, mom called the cops.

I called my mom and explained to her about calling on my mobile phone if she was worried. For some reason she lost the number. Though it might not have mattered, remember when she called the land line and screamed to answer (thinking it was the cell phone) when she was lost in New Orleans?

At least the police did not break the glass out this time.

There is no read more, I hit that button wondering what it would do and I can't get rid of it.

The new neighbors almost have a name. I am trying very hard not to give them an X-rated name like the assholes but it is getting hard to find one that is both appropriate and not too hard core nasty.

Mr. New Neighbor, we will call him Dead Man Walking as he is so old he is barely walking, has spent the afternoon clearing his yard of leaves. Here in the mid-west we have these tools called rakes. You put the tool on the ground and pull it towards you and the little pesky leaves come along in a group. It is commonly called raking the yard. When you have a yard as small as we have here in the poor section of the Grosse Pointes it takes about 20 minutes to rake the yard. Mr. DMW  took 4 hours to use a gas powered blower to blow his leaves into the street. The last 15 leaves were a bitch for him to chase down as he only moves at the speed of of a zombie.

Why can't I get a normal neighbor?

He just blew his granddaughter or Mormon wife off the driveway as she was trying to rake. Oh my goodness.

Big Daddy told me to chill out, it is an old guy with a new toy and he will probably have a heart attack soon.

The City says they pick up leaves on the curb on Monday.

Surprise, surprise

On an Animal Planet note I looked out the back doorwall yesterday and a hawk was sitting on the electrical line. That is only about 12 feet away and he looked fierce. I have never seen a hawk in the yard before. I asked Punkin Head if the hawk would attack Sammy dog and he said maybe. AAAAAAAAAAAAAh. He was magnificent when he took to flight.

My old boss sent me an email upon receipt of my resume to call him today. As I know him so well I called at 7:30 and learned some startling information. The new CEO of the company is going through the ranks with a scythe and my old department was hit the worst. Seems the new investment company believes they got screwed on the sale (this is why due diligence is important and not just a cache phrase) and wants to make all the money back this week or at the latest before Thanksgiving. But he will keep me in mind for occasional contract work. 

Let me explain my old job. I was the gatekeeper of all things holy. If someone screwed up, I fixed it. Sometimes, mostly all the time, 4 or 5 different people would all screw up the same day. And I would fix it. Sometimes it took more than me to fix it and my boss would send me underlings to help. Some of them had specialties. And we would fix it. Sometimes I got sent to be an underling. Fixing it required very long days in sometimes uncomfortable surroundings while multiple people yelled at you. This is not a job you do once in a while on a whim for cheap. And if most everyone was let go this could be going from fire to fire with a patched up water hose and holes in your boots.

At least the guy (from another company) that originally asked for my resume responded that he hand walked it into HR. Whew.

I talked to my former co-workers and there is a lotta bad feelings over how this was handled. And with automotive going gangbusters right now this is just screwy to treat people this way. We will see how this one works out.

It pays to be nice

I have always treated my hairdresser extremely well as my hair is my greatest vanity. It is also the one item I have the largest control over as long as it does not fall out. My hairdresser called me this morning on her day off to ask how the scary hair is going. It is now field corn yellow on top and ugly as sin. I had a really nice hat to wear yesterday to our late lunch. She offered/demanded to try and fix my hair next Monday on her day off. I asked Big Daddy what he thought of trying to improve on this experiment or go back to boring blond. He loves boring blond and hates my hair in its current state. That answers that.

We did not take one picture yesterday on our travels. Now that is boring.

The Fiancee gave me a lovely candle and a book for my birthday and Punkin Head produced a lovely bottle of wine.

The new neighbors got rid of the shitty curtains and now have blinds. They also moved t he clothes off the sofa.

It rained very hard today and no leaks in the dining room, hooray.

Last night on our way home it was dark when we drove down Lakeshore Drive. There were a couple freighters out their all aglow and then I noticed the wind turbines. They blink on and off red lights about every 15 to 20 seconds. Don't know that I would like to live near that. Since they don't seem to generate enormous amounts of energy how do they pay for the cost of the blinkers and the aviation lights?

I am getting used to me

Looking into the mirror no longer makes me jump and cringe. I am so used to looking like a freak that I only have a mild wince and sorrowful thoughts.

I need to come up with an outfit for Sunday as we will be dining out with Punkin Head's future mother-in-law. Of course it will be the last warm day of the year, not helping me on the wardrobe side, and I have to find a hat to go with the attire.

I think I need a new Avatar, the one I use was just a last minute choice by Big Daddy of some shoes I wore in New Orleans that everyone loved. I was stopped everywhere about those shoes and you can't really even see them in the picture. Anyway it think it is tired and needs to be freshened.

The neighbors are still entertaining me. The new neighbors, as yet unnamed, are using their living room sofa as a laundry hamper. It is so charming to see their clothing strewn about and their curtains mushed and crumpled as the furniture is too close to the wall. Mrs, Clampett was putting her trash in the Slav's trash this morning which was quite odd as Mrs. Clampett had her own trash at the curb. Its not like there is a limit.

Oh, my limelight hydrangea never made the burgundy stage, they went straight to brown. There is a house down the street and theirs are gorgeous. Big Daddy said it is because ours were neglected for so long. My bittersweet berries are turning darker orange so I will try to get a picture of them.

Sammy has a new "thang" I need to get a photo of, he puts his head down sideways on a throw rug and sticks his rear end straight up in the air. And stays that way like he is sleeping or doing some heavy thinking. Silly dog.

Let us see where this all ends up

The elections are over and some people are happy and some people are sad.

The guy elected as my new U.S. Representative is either the felon with new charges against him last week or the lady who sat on the worst Detroit City Council ever. Did not vote for either so I really don't care, its not like they will set foot in my town.

The Emergency Manager Law was struck down so now everything fecked up in Michigan has to go to bankruptcy court or the legislature will write a new law to be struck down. I say let them go to court and get it over with.

Michigan can build the bridge to Canada. With Canada paying of course.

Someone I used to work with asked for my resume. I really got to make a decision on this.

Look down a bit from the nose and you can see where the tree is trying to make a mouth, a yelling mouth.

As I have little of interest to write about today I will fulfill Pearl's wish of more Slav tidbits. I have many different neighbors, the Cookie Lady, the Clampetts, the flower lady, the chorale man, and the Sheriff to name a few. The Slavs moved into the old Al Qaeda house. George, Mr. Al Qaeda, was a real estate agent and was the first on the block to be foreclosed on. The house sat vacant for over a year or two but as the best deal ever it sold to the Newlyweds father. Dad bought the house for the kids. He is Mr. Slav. The kids were in college and not allowed to move into the house until the ink was dry on the marriage license.

It was fall 2009 when we started seeing furniture going into the house. Heavy, dark European style matching sets and the traditional American family castoffs. His and her family contributions to the household. A few weeks later we saw the bridal party taking pictures in the front yard. Typical pictures where you have two different cultures trying to mesh. Mr. Slav was directing, he speaks with a very heavy accent in broken English, somewhat hard to understand.

The newlyweds move in. We move to China. Punkin Head is installed in the family hearth and home and watches the neighborhood. Hey, he grew up here he knows the stories. The newlyweds leave. The house is vacant again. We move home, well I move home, it is now 2012.

Moving vans start arriving at the vacant newlywed house and I recognize the groom and Mr. Slav. Tons of people and 3 or more vehicles move in. There is a ton of excited slavic talk on the deck every morning. There is the groom and his bud re-positioning the vehicles every morning around 5:30.

One day there is a car parked at the end of my driveway when there are many other options available. I am outside thinking this is bad when the Slav parade comes around the corner of the house. I ask, is that your car sitting at the end of my driveway waiting to get T-boned? The Slavs cannot respond as they do not speak the English. They go and get a lady that speaks the English with a heavy Slav accent. She indicates that yes that is their vehicle waiting to get T-boned. They move it and they all smile and wave.

The only one I cannot explain in the Slav house is the black man. He gardens.

It has always been quite common to have foreign workers here in SE Michigan, and sometimes there are short term workers. It is not inconceivable to me that with the low prices here in the Pointes  people would try to use these homes as dormitories for workers. Not to be cynical but we are extremely close to the border crossings, the lake and the river. Many a truck has been found at the crossing with people without papers.

I will never complain about the Slav group home as they are the best neighbors I have had.

We do not seem to have one normal household around here. Everything this guy has, he has multiples of. And he has had a garage sale every decent weekend since we moved in. Around 20 years of garage sales.

It is a good thing I like hats because Saturday I finally went too far and now have scary hair. If I was younger I would cry. There is no help in crying and hats will be my friend for awhile. I cannot get it fixed until I can get a couple oil treatments.

The roof is fixed so we can plaster later in the week. The chimney will be in the backyard until garbage day.

It appears new slavs moved into the group home this week. We wondered what happened with some of the blinds that disappeared. A truck showed up with more furniture.

I did see something interesting yesterday. Canada went ahead with putting the windmills in the lake, you can see them from Lakeshore Drive in the right weather. I think they started last fall and of course it was a very mild winter here. Wonder how the ice and wind will affect the poles. Guess it depends on how deep they sunk the poles. I need to read up on this.

Just how many boring pumps do you need?

Please excuse the mess, the dining room is in the living room while we are repairing plaster and fixing the leak. This is the fabulous air mattress. This is the backside.


I am awaiting to hear from Punkin Head on his blow up air mattress bed. They are in a one bedroom and The Fiancees mother is coming for a visit. When I told Big Daddy what the Punkin Head bought he exclaimed, "We have one up in the attic." I was stunned. When and why did I buy a blow up mattress? BD brought it down and tested it out, it is great nicely quilted with nap on one side, the blower upper thing is re-chargeable and it is a full size sleeping surface. Then it all rolls up into a bundle the size of a fat sleeping bag. It even has a patch repair kit. I do not know what I was thinking when I bought this one

I braved the cold and wind to venture into town and get my mani/pedi for my birthday Monday. This year it will be a quiet time so I am just getting myself a present. The gossip was unbelievable. The rich are crazy and hanging it out for us all to see. Stores are moving and changing being shoved into new spaces, whether they like it or not. We now have a new shoe store, womens, at the expense of a beloved section of another store. I certainly hope this does not go the way of the last shoe store where you could only find the most boring, conservative, same color shit that only a handful of people purchased. They rest of us shopped elsewhere. And the shoe store closed.


I was laughing at the political yard signs I saw today. My favorite is vote biblically. That is all it says that I can see. Here in the Detroit area you can take that many ways. It is amazing to see who is voting for whom, or at least is advertising them in the yard. I am a true believer that people just will not tell you the truth on what happens behind that curtain.

And I think that is the proper way to vote.