The Purse From Hell

A few years ago I purchased a purse that eventually showed me that it was possessed by demons.  When I purse shop, I look for just the right one.  It has to have at least two compartments inside to keep certain things separate from one another.  It also has to have a few little zippered compartments here and there on the outside for other smaller things. 

On that particular day when I walked into that store I had hoped I would find what I was looking for because up until then I was having no luck at all.  Eventually I found what I thought then was the right one.  Little did I know what it had in store for me.

Months later, after I had everything in its correct place inside and outside of that precious purse, my husband and I went to a local Drunken Donuts shop to have a cup of coffee and a donut.  I sat in a seat with my back to the window.  After we felt we spent enough time there, we left to do some shopping. 

It was about maybe 15-20 minutes later as we are driving down the road that I realized I did not have my purse with me.  When I mentioned it to my husband, he almost went into convulsions.  I keep a lot of stuff in my purse that I shouldn't and he knew it.  He did the fastest U-ey I had ever been a part of and we were back at that donut shop lickety-split. 

Unbelievably, my purse was right where I had left it.  I grabbed it up like a long lost relative.  And I didn't care what the man sitting nearby thought, other than he probably wished he had found it first.  I mumbled something about it being mine and out the door I went.

Fast forward a few weeks when my husband and I had to go to the post office to make copies of something.  Since there are no tables or shelves in there, I had to place my purse on the floor.  Yes, you guessed it...I left it behind.  Almost half an hour later we were back at the post office where that damn little black heathen still sat on the floor alongside the copy machine.  And it looked like it was laughing at me.

After getting a good talking to by my husband, I finally decided I had had enough.  I was not going to ever leave that purse behind.  So I bought another one and banished the original one to never see the light of day again.  Not in my possession anyway.  I still have it.  I need to be reminded of what an idiot I am at times.  I had never left a purse behind prior to those two incidents, and I have yet to do it since.

It has to be the purse.  The fact that I bought it at Wally-World might have a lot to do with it. 

Last year I splurged and finally bought a genuine leather purse; I have always wanted one but never wanted to pay the price.  So far this one has behaved.  I think it knows better. 

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Go ahead, blow it up and check it out.

This photo is in a current upscale catalog I received in the mail. My husband looked through the catalog first and when he got to this page he showed it to me. When I first glanced at it (not knowing what catalog it was), my first thought was that there were errors to be found, such as my title for this post.

When I realized what it actually was, I could not believe what I was seeing. Because up until then, I was picking out all the errors. Seriously, since when do men wear polos over dress shirts and then put on a suit jacket that is clearly way too small? Those shoes he's wearing don't exactly match the look either.  Well considering what he threw together up top, maybe they do.

OK, I know that in certain parts of the country men do not wear socks but I have yet to see it being done while sporting a suit and white shoes. My first thought when I looked at that guy on the left was PeeWee Herman was in town for the shoot.

Anything else you folks can find wrong with the picture will be appreciated by me. Just leave it in the comments and it goes directly to my email.

Off To The Super Bowl

By winning the game against the San Francisco 49ers, the New York Giants are now the champions of the NFC.  The score was 20-17 in overtime.  I held my breath the entire game.  Yes indeedy I certainly did.

'Tis Verra Cold Outside

Yes, I am still alive.  Yes, it feels like the middle of the tundra here.  And that is why I haven't written much lately.  I keep this computer room on the cool side so it's not pleasant to be in here all that long.  And, yes, it is all I have to work with at this time. 

I have a laptop but it's not connected to the system yet.  And please don't ask me what I'm waiting for, because I really don't know.  And I do not own any of those new-fangled smart phones or anything else to connect me to the Internet.  It's my choice to not own those things. 

We got snow overnight but I don't know how much since the amount doesn't matter...snow is snow and around here when we get snow and it's cold, who cares how much there is anyway.  The only good thing is that by Monday the temperature is supposed to go up to the low 50's and hopefully most of this crap will be taken away.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to the football games on Sunday as well as the BBQ spare ribs I will be making in the slow cooker.  Frigid cold weather and snow can't take that away from me.

Groundhog Day is February 2nd and Daylight Saving Time starts March 11th.  And once both those are gone Spring is not far behind.  Not that I am wanting to have these days pass by faster than they already do, but my favorite time of the year is Spring.  And it can never get here fast enough after the crazy winters we have in these parts.

And that, folks, is all I can think of to write about for now.

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Update:  We ended up with 6 inches of snow which is a lot more than they predicted for our area.

What A Great Game

I was a little apprehensive leading up to the game between the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers Sunday.  Green Bay's quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, is really, really good, not to mention the entire team.  They have been hard to beat all season.

But when push came to shove, the New York Giants put it to them winning  by a margin of 17 points.  The end result?  Giants over the Packers 37-20 and they did that in Green Bay territory at Lambeau Field.

The Giants will be playing my other favorite team, the San Francisco 49ers, for the NFC Championship.  Whoever wins that game will go on to play in the Super Bowl. It's a win-win situation for me since I like both teams, although a little bit of me wants it to be the Giants.

Guess What I'm Doing?

I am watching Sprint Cup cars winter testing in Daytona.  Three whole days of cars going around the track, always turning left.  I am in heaven. 

These testing sessions are a treat since the Daytona 500 was pushed back a week and now will take place February 26th making us fans wait a week longer than in the past. 

Speed weeks starts, so I read, February 17th with the Bud Shootout the next evening.  That will be the first race of the season.  It is a non-points race but can be quite exciting since these guys are chomping at the bit to get the season going after sitting since the end of November.

...and we're off and running...

Waiting ~ The Story of My Life

Saturday my husband had an MRI done.  I don't know how many he's had since we are married, but it seems like a lot.  I have never had one.  I hope I never need one.  I don't know which is worse:  waiting for him to get done or actually having an MRI.  I guess I had the easiest part.  We go to an open air facility which is the only way to have an MRI in my opinion.  But then what do I know since I've never had one to begin with.

I spent two hours waiting for him to get finished.  I am glad I took my current book along (I am a chain reader), but when I got tired of reading I leafed through some magazines.  There were two copies of a magazine titled Caribbean.  Boy, did I get lost in that magazine.  I transplanted myself (in my mind) in that part of the world and just dreamed away.  It wasn't hard to do.  I could live there year 'round.  By there, I mean any of those islands would do.   I'm not fussy.

Oh yeah, the reason for my husband's MRI is something that happened to him over two months ago.  The first step was visiting an ER and having X-rays done.  That doctor said he had partially torn his bicep muscle.  It took my husband over two weeks to decide to do something in the first place and when his arm turned every color imaginable, he decided it was time.

After the ER and with nothing really settled other than to keep his arm in the sling they sent home with him, he wanted more answers.  He called his family doctor to see if they would OK an MRI.  Of course, things aren't done that way anymore, you now have to go through hoop after hoop to get to the place you want to be.  Finally the appointment was made and yesterday was the day. 

They gave him a CD of the results.  I guess the next step is to go back to the family doctor with the CD so that he can look at it and take it from there, which means another co-pay.  They get you coming and going. 

Health care in this day and age truly amazes me.  And not in a good way.  It is appalling as to what a person must go through these days to get anything done. And it is only going to get worse as the years go by.   Oh, and don't expect the doctor or his office to call you...you have to call them for every little thing.  We always find that out the hard way when we sit around waiting for them to call either with results or with an appointment and we end up calling them for said information.  It never used to be that way. 

Brrrrrr...

It's bitter cold and I feel like someone sat me down in the middle of Alaska and the worst storm they could imagine. 

That's all I'm going to say for now.

NFC East Champions

May All Your Wishes Come True

I think I am going to like 2012 much better than 2011.  I don't like things with uneven numbers in them. 

This year we will be doing the same thing we have been doing for years now...staying home and watching the ball drop in New York Times Square.

I will have my small glass of wine with some fancy multigrain crackers and port wine cheese spread.

My four fur babies will join us in the celebration of the new year.

Things I won't have to worry about:  getting dressed and putting on makeup, rubbing elbows with people, over-eating, driving on the same road with maniacs that insist on driving while drunk and multi-tasking like using their phone to talk or text, and best of all I won't have to worry about what I say or do in my own house.

So, to all of you out there in cyberland, have a safe and happy holiday.

Merry Christmas To All

This is for the politically correct:

Did Someone Ask Me If I Am Ready For Christmas?

The answer is a simple no.

Yes, I have the gifts but they are not wrapped.

Yes, I have everything needed for the meal.

And that is all I can answer yes to. There will be no crazed woman baking cookies this year like she has for the past few years. Why, you ask? Because that same woman ended up eating most of those cookies.

There will be little decorating going on in this house. Why, you ask? Because this woman is tired of traipsing up and down the basement steps to decorate and then having to do the same thing when the holidays are over by taking them back downstairs.

There will be a tree, but only what I call my wall tree. It looks like a real tree but it is flat against the wall and high enough that the cats can't get at it. There are lights and balls and decorations on it, too.

If I get really jazzed about this holiday, I might even bring my poinsettias up and set some around the house.

Now, I 'll bet you are asking yourself, what is wrong with this woman? Well, I will tell you what is wrong with me. I have been doing this decorating thing for so long that I am just tired of it. I don't have any grandchildren and I don't have to entertain anyone, so I just feel it is a waste of my time to go through all that for nothing.

I used to wonder why people stopped decorating or having a tree, especially when my parents stopped. I never understood it. I thought they lost their minds.  Well, let me tell you that I truly believe just about everyone will hit this same wall sooner or later.

I have not lost the Christmas spirit or my religion or anything like that. I hate the commercialism that has been brought to this most sacred of holidays and I prefer to celebrate it in my own way with my husband and my four fur-babies. And I can't forget my daughter and her boyfriend.

Just A Little Note

This little fella, aka Eli, has been given a clean bill of health from his vet.
What a great Christmas gift to me!

When he was first tested for FIV (feline AIDS) he tested positive. I was told that happens with a lot of kittens as their mothers pass the antibodies on to their young. That is what happened in Eli's case. Most kittens then do not test negative until they are around 6 months old. I am very thankful that at the age of 3 months Eli tested negative, so I didn't have to wait another three months to get good results.

In the beginning of January Eli will get his final distemper shot (there are three in the series), and then sometime in early March he will be neutered at the age of 6 months old. Our vet won't do it any earlier than that.

Raising any kitten that is a product of a feral colony can be hit or miss as to whether it is healthy or not. Most of them have worms, fleas, ear mites, parasites etc. With Eli we really lucked out...he had none of those. But he sure did give us a few scares along the way.

When we brought him inside that first day and then took him to the vet a few days later, he only weighed 9.5 oz. He was 5 weeks old. He is now almost 15 weeks old and weighs 3 lbs. 14 oz. I don't think Eli will be small like Punkin' is. Eli is quite a handful now already, especially when he is overtired, which happens a lot in the evenings when I have him out to run and play.  His morning sessions go a little better.

Summing this up...I couldn't ask for a better Christmas gift than Eli being negative in all his tests. 

Christmas Dreaming

If anyone out there is feeling overly generous this Christmas season, I would be more than happy to accept your gift of the 2012 black Harley-Davidson Trike as show above.

Seriously.

Finally! The Giants Won A Game

What an exciting game it was. So exciting it gave me a headache. I really thought they were going to lose another one but Eli Manning came through and the G-men backed him up.

Final score: Cowboys 34 ~ Giants 37

Do They See Me Coming?

There are three times I can think of right now where I have been given shoddy merchandise. And the more I think about it, the angrier I get. The latest one happened when I ordered something online and picked it up in the store. Oh, the store is close enough and I am sure they may have had product on the shelves, but it was an item on sale in their flyer and I didn't want to take any chances of getting there and finding nothing. I was also able to get 10% off the sale price by ordering online, too. I will discuss this incident last.

The other two times I will talk about are the most recent and also are the most freshest in my mind. The first one was the stainless steel breadbox I ordered online. When I am in the market for something I do my homework, meaning I drive myself crazy making sure I get the right thing from the right people for the right price. In my mind, that is.

I ordered the breadbox and when it arrived the outer box was fine. The box the manufacturer put it in was not. It had some tear spots at places. When I removed the item from its box there was a small dent in the top. Needless to say I was on the phone fairly fast to get that problem rectified. They deducted money from what I paid and I kept the semi-damaged breadbox. 

The next item was a water fountain for my cats to drink from because I don't trust the public water we are offered. The fountain uses filters that have to be changed every so often and I use filtered water also. When that fountain arrived I was quite eager to get it working for them since the one I had been using quit on me. I dug into the box without thinking about anything other than getting the fountain cleaned and working for my cats. The thing that puzzled me the most was there was no instruction booklet inside. That was my first clue. And then I remembered none of the pieces were in plastic, both main pieces were put together and the pump was already in its proper place. But like I said, my eagerness to get it up and running surpassed any common sense I should have had at the time. Of course, I called the people I bought it from and making a long story short they did not charge me for the fountain. Which is no more than right since it was ascertained they sent me a return item. Which made me think that the breadbox may have been a returned item also. They were both ordered from the same place. You know the place...named after a great river in South America...yep, that's the one.

Now we are at the third item. This just happened this week. Like I said, I ordered it online, got a confirmation and instructions when to pick it up and where. On Wednesday we went to layaway for the slow cooker I ordered. When the box was brought out and placed before me I took one look at it and was appalled at its condition. This line of slow cookers was introduced into this store in September and there is absolutely no reason for its box to look like this one did. It looked like it had gone through WWII. Dented and crushed corners, the tabs where you open the lid looked like they had been opened and closed so many times I shudder to think just how many times. I opened it, and on the top of the cooker was the glass lid encased in a plastic bag that looked old and dusty not to mention there was a rather large hole in the bag. When I saw that all I could say was, "This is not acceptable. I cannot accept this in this condition." Yes, it was for me but it could have been a gift for someone so the point is, when I purchase something everything should be in nearly pristine condition whether it's for someone else or for me...it's the principle of it.

To again make a story short, another cooker was taken off the floor and brought to me. Still not the condition I was looking for but ten times better than the first one, so I accepted it.  I used to shop this particular store a lot but their credibility with me took a huge nosedive with what they tried to pull.

So my question is this: Do I look like a loser? Do I look stupid? Do I look like I just fell off the turnip wagon? The answer is no to all three questions. So why is it these stores try to pawn off their crap to me? They don't even know me. I just don't get it. Here it is, three days later and I am still fuming.

But you should have heard me on Wednesday. My husband sure did. He kept telling me to let it go...how can I? I can see something like this happening once, maybe twice, but this has been going on most of my life and I am getting tired of it.

One day I will get even. And when I figure out how, you will be the first to know.

R.I.P. Gizmo

This is a picture of Gizmo with one of her many kittens. She is responsible for most of the cats that we have outside in one form or another and she was Punkin's grandmother. She was a good mother to all her litters. Recently we lost her to an unknown illness.

This picture is her when she was a kitten herself. She grew up to become one of my favorite outside cats. She is the only cat, besides one of her kittens, that allowed me to touch her and she was always at my feet when I went out to feed.

This was Gizmo's mother, Kallie. I don't remember when we lost her.

I don't know what caused Gizmo's death. It was really strange the way it happened. One of our black cats had been lying around not feeling well I suppose and the next day Gizmo had joined the black one on a large pillow outside the hothouse. She never left the black one's side even after it passed on. We think she died of a broken heart...

Catching Up

What a weird weekend this has been. No racing. The first weekend since February with no racing. I can't stand it. Well, maybe I can. But the new season starts a week later than usual. I think the Daytona 500 will be held on the 26th. That is three months away. Thirteen long weeks. But at least there will be some racing prior to the 500, so that's not too bad. I think I can last that long.

Actually, I am glad for this break. There are a lot of things NASCAR needs to do to spiffy up their racing. It was getting a bit boring there for awhile. Plus I was tired of hearing all the antics the Busch brothers were doing and it led me to believe they are in some kind of contest to see which one is the biggest butthead. And that's putting it nicely. So far I believe they are even.

We decided to go shopping Sunday because the kitten (Eli) needed his canned wet kitten food. We started at the pet store, continued on to get gas in the truck, and ended up at one of our two favorite grocery stores. Between the three of those places, we spent almost $250.00. Half of it was for all the cats. Dry food, wet food, treats, another litter box for Eli, and litter. I look at it this way: I don't have any grandkids so we spend our money on our grandcats. How's that for justification?

And speaking of Eli, he now weighs 2 lbs. 12 oz. By Wednesday he will probably weigh 3 lbs. He is 12 weeks old. Punkin' didn't weigh 3 lbs. until he was almost 16 weeks old.

We now have one holiday under our belts with two left, Christmas and New Years Day. At this stage of my life, I am not one to rush the days but I will be glad when these holidays are over with and we get back to a normal life. I say this every year.

One more thing before I end this: last week those rag-tag bullies with a dog-killer for a quarterback made my Giants look like fools. On Sunday the New England Patriots made those same Eagles look like fools. I feel so much better now.

The Day After

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.  Ours was quiet.  Just the two of us...and our four fur babies.

When my parents were still with us we always had our Thanksgiving Day at their house and most times my brother and sister and their families would be there too.  Toward the end they kind of drifted away and had their celebrations at their own homes with their growing families.  But since I only had one child, we continued to be with my parents.  My mother always loved having her family around her for the holidays and we weren't going to deny her that enjoyment.

Our dinner yesterday consisted of a honey brined turkey breast, stuffing, gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and Bisquick's Impossible Pumpkin Pie that I made for the first time.  I have always wanted to try one of their Impossible pies and just never got around to doing it, so this time I made the time and got it done.  Now I want to try others.

Today I am going to be making a pumpkin-apple dessert in the crock pot.  Oh yeah, I am looking for a new one of those, too.  The dial broke off about a year ago and I have been turning it with some difficulty never knowing where it was, whether it was on low, high, or keep warm.  I want to make things easier by getting one that is programmable (digital).  Making things easier at this stage of my life makes me happier also.  Nothing worse than being cross at a crock pot.

Getting back to yesterday...we watched all three football games.  Although the Giants are now my number one team, I still have a spot in my heart for the 49ers so I enjoyed watching that game despite the fact that they lost and are now 9-2.  Joe Montana and Steve Young and winning Super Bowls was right up my alley back then, until all those things went away and they became just another team.  Yes, I kind of turned my back on them but don't forget that they are still number two and that's not so bad.  Everybody should have a reserve team in case one goes wonky now and then.

So as I said, yesterday was quiet, just the two of us, watching football and doing other things off and on.  No visitors, no phone calls...just the way I like it.  I take after my father in that respect.  And I have never complained about it.  So naturally that meant there would be no craziness the day after, Black Friday.  We always stay home.  Where it's safe from all those frenzied nuts.  If I need to buy something I am willing to pay a few more dollars and keep my sanity, what little I have left.  No sense in losing all of it.

So once again, I truly hope you all had a nice day and for those of you who decided to mingle amongst the pepper-spraying crazies...good luck with your bargain hunting!

Ho-Hum

Things have been mighty busy since little Eli has come into our lives. My schedule has been changed and almost everything is focused around him. Not everything, I shouldn't say that...but for the most part he is the center of most of our actions these days.

Mornings around here are so different from before. My first chore is to feed the three older cats, Dakota-Sioux, Junior, and Punkin'. After that the cats outside get fed, and then I can devote the next two hours to Eli while he is fenced off in the kitchen. I usually stay there with him doing odd things.  For Eli, those two hours are filled with eating, drinking, and playing. He plays so hard that he tires himself out and usually falls asleep as soon as I put him in his pen.

That gives me approximately five hours before it is time to feed the cats outside. Once that is done, I can start on our dinner. Sometimes that is just where I slap anything on the table as long as it's food, or I cook a meal of meat, starch, and a vegetable or something similar to that.

And then once again it is time to get Eli out for at least another two hours. As you can see from all this, there isn't much time to do computer stuff like post more often than I have been doing.

Once our dinner is eaten and the dishes cleared away I do have an hour or two on the computer unless something else is more pressing. By 8:00 I am ready to sit in my recliner and watch TV. Once the news comes on at 11:00, guess what? It is time to get Eli out for at least an hour or so.  I usually try to get him back into his pen by 12:30am or earlier.

By then I am so ready to watch The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, that crazy Scot. Once his show is over it is time for me to get to bed which is usually around 1:45am.

So there you have it, the reasons why I don't post as much as I would like to. Once we get an OK from the vet and can let all the cats mingle, things will be a lot different. Keep your fingers crossed that Eli gets a clean bill of health soon.