Le Pew!

I am an allergy sufferer. Most of the ways that it affects me are not that bad - sniffly nose, watery eyes, sneezing, etc. etc. Occasionally I'll end up with a BADASS headache over it, but for the most part it's not a big deal.
Then there are the "other" occasions: The "I have known since I was a teenager I should not wear perfume, but can't seem to help myself" occasions. WHAT A MORON!
It's probably been 2 years since I have sprayed perfume on my body - I'll usually opt for a natural body spray which doesn't seem to bother me. But about a week ago, my younger step-daughter left her perfume on my kitchen table and it smelled SO good, I thought I'd just give it a try... For three days in a row... Yesterday I was feeling pretty funny and just dismissed the thought. This morning I almost passed out and had to have my husband drive me to work during his vacation. Here's the stupid thing: I've been through this before. It's not like I didn't KNOW better. What is it about the lure of a good smell like that?
To top off this happy occasion, I have a 10 o'clock meeting with a very important bank rep. He is coming to make sure that we are up to his standards and meet his criteria so that we can use them for financing. I can't imagine he will be too impressed if I end up face-planting in my office floor when I should just be shaking his hand...
Perfume - I officially hate it.

Happy Memorial Day!

Sincere thanks to all the veterans who have served us or who are still doing so. My dad served in Vietnam right out of high school. He never talks about it, but I know he was shot and honored with a Purple Heart. He still breaks out in rashes from the Agent Orange and has shrapnel left in his leg, but, like most veterans, he never says a word about it. Thanks dad!

The rest of my blog for today can be viewed over at 47 and Starting Over. Thanks again Julie, for letting me guest post!

The Official Child Mortification Process

This morning I got to drive my husband's mid-life crisis to work. It's not what you might think, either. Most men (at least as television depicts it) hit their midlife crisis and want a sports car or something super cool like that. Not my hubby. A couple of months ago he decided he wanted to sell his truck. This was a nice truck. And, honestly, we needed it for pulling the horse trailer. That didn't stop him from selling it, though... and buying another truck and selling it two weeks later and buying another truck and trading it off the next day for yet another and selling that one and piddle-farting around (translated: riding everywhere with me) until he found THE truck. He called me, excited. He'd found the coolest little truck... So he bought it.
It is 19 - NINETEEN - years older than the one he originally sold. He drove it home and didn't quite make it because the motor blew up. He had a rebuilt motor put in it, but it is still ugly, it is noisy, it is crappy and so-help-me it has a sticker of Wylie Coyote in the back window (he's holding a sheep and flipping someone off - presumably taunting me). So, I figured it's fine. He's going through a phase. We can pull the trailer with my Explorer for now and it's not like I have to ride in the noisy little thing. Wrong.
Last night he announced that he would be needing to trade vehicles with me today because he has to get shoes put on one of the horses. I was mortified (although quietly) until I noticed that Pea-Pie was twice as embarrassed about it as I was. Of course I lectured him about how we were lucky to have any kind of vehicle in this economy and that as long as it gets you from point A to point B, that's all that matters... He conceded defeat and climbed in. When we got to school, I noticed he was in a huge hurry to jump out and get away so I insisted on a long hug. Then.... just as he was almost to the school entrance, I revved the motor and honked twice...eeep eeeeeep.
New Old truck $500
Repairs $1,100 (so far)
Febreeze to get the smell out of it $4
Being able to terrorize my child with it....PRICELESS!

Shorty

I can't post my own blog today. I have to... No... I GET to work on one for Julie over at 47 and Starting Over. She has one or two more followers than I do (coughbullshitcough) okay, hundreds more. So, I'ma concentrate myself over there...
Hope you all have a fantastic Thursday!

That's a Hand!

I started taking art classes several weeks ago. The teacher was my high school art teacher. She lives a few miles from me and we reconnected through Facebook (turns out Facebook can be good for something besides making me feel guilty for not keeping up with everyones requests).
During my first class, she had me draw a human (whole body), a human face, a tree and a pitcher. It was embarrasing. Looked like something I would have drawn in Kindergarten. She's sneaky, too, because she keeps those first pictures and occasionally whips them out at me, presumably to keep me humble. Last night was my 5th or 6th class and I had to draw my own hand. The palm side, fingers and all. You know what? IT LOOKED LIKE MY HAND! Bless that woman, I'm actually learning! She let me bring the hand picture home to show my family (she still won't let those first drawings out of her sight) and guess what? They recognized that it was a hand! What else could I do but hang it on my refridgerator?

Red-Neck Roulette

I stopped at Sonic this morning (America's Favorite Drive-In..Thru?). I ordered a burger and an unsweet tea as per usual. While waiting on my food I decided to play one of my favorite games: CD Roulette! See, whether we're talking cds or dvds, I am famous around my house for one thing: Taking the cd/dvd that is in the player out and sticking it in the case of the cd/dvd I am about to put in. After a while, it's anyone's guess where the cd/dvd they are looking for is actually housed. ha! They (those other people who live in the house with me) say this habit of mine annoys them. I say pshaw! I'm convinced that one day, when I'm gone, my son will tell his grandchildren about how their crazy old great-grandmommy would do this. And they will say, "But Granddaddy Pea-Pie, what's a cd/dvd?"
ANYWAY, I pulled out my Third Eye Blind cd case (the greatest hits one) and GUESS WHAT WAS INSIDE?! Jason Mraz. But not JUST Jason Mraz (and here comes the most shocking part) - THIRD EYE BLIND - The one that actually belonged in the case! I jammed that disc with the volume ALMOST HALF WAY UP all the way to work!! Seriously, at my age and with my superior Ford sound system, that's really saying something! (I don't know if it is really superior, but I work for Ford so I say it's superior dammit). Good thing my husband was off work today. I mean, I love my husband and I love working and living with him, but you can't take a 40-odd year old redneck and blast Third Eye Blind with him in the car. He knows not of sipping gold, rose skies through his nose! He wouldn't try to talk someone off a ledge and he's certainly no Crystal Baller. So, twice a week, when we don't work together, my stereo gets the cob webs blown out of it and my ears get a good thumping. Tomorrow it's back to Charlie Daniels and the saga of Wooly Swamp. (don't ever go down there at night).

Bug Bastard!

Friday I had to call in sick (with a puking migraine). The day went something like:
Puke
sleep
puke
cry
wonder if i have pig flu?
puke
no fever - scratch pig flu
sleep
wonder if anyone loves me enough to shoot me and put me out of my misery?
puke.
It's official - noone loves me enough to shoot me. Plan on making new friends if I survive.

Saturday I had to work to make up for missing Friday (okay I didn't HAVE to, but I hate missing work). The day's list looked much the same except before puke, you have to add in "run across showroom floor into the bathroom"...
Sunday was the same but (thankfully) without the headache, leading me to believe I did NOT have a migraine causing nausea, I had a bug of some kind causing ALL of it.
Now I'm off to catch up on all your blogs!

The Montauk Monster

I just have one question: WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THIS!?
I am dumbfounded, grossed-out, intrigued and CURIOUS. What up? Even Snopes hasn't determinted it's a hoax, but here's what gets me: Why are all of these scientists having to speculate from photographs? Why wasn't the carcass disected and examined? Just for that reason alone, I have to go with hoax.

And this is how you tell I had absolutely nothing to blog about today.

Urine for a real treat!!

Mrs. 4444 is giving away a great prize! Please follow the link and check it out!
Go Girl!

Bottle Calves

We have started buying bottle calves. That's fine. I mentioned before that we are getting ready to build a house and these little boogers are the money behind it. I really really like the idea of building a house. I really really like eating beef. I do NOT like being personally responsible for hauling the little cuties off to sale, knowing that they are going to be killed and eaten after I've logged a jazillion hours petting and feeding them. I ABSOLUTELY refuse to eat one of our own. Sorry, but once it's looked me in the face, I'm not putting it in my mouth. I've gone so far as to threaten vegetarianism upon our household when my husband insisted we butcher one (scared the crap out of everyone else-they can't cook).
Mind you, I would get up at 4am if I needed to in order to get my house built, but the more calves we buy, the earlier we have to wake up and I'm TIRED. Possibly a little grumpy, but we won't talk about that.
This morning, we overslept so the whole fam damily had to run around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to feed horses, calves, dogs, the bird, and the rabbit. Hubby had to change clothes before we left because one of the brand new babies "SHIT ALL OVER MY PANTS" as he put it. (snicker.snort.gufaw!)
Anywho, after all of this running around, trying to get ready, making sure everything was fed, we got to school to drop Pea-Pie off and, at the same time, we all realized WE did not eat breakfast. Nor was there time for my poor boy to eat at school by that point. Maybe, just maybe, I'll end up dropping some weight in this deal. It would be nice if sleep wasn't the only thing I lost!