My Next House

My next house will have ~10 x 12 his & her storage rooms on the main level. Nothing can be in your room that you don't want enough to make room for it. All unclaimed items will be trashed weekly on trash day without endless sorting and evaluating. That's fair, isn't it?

Swami <--- sick of shuffle, re-shuffle & repeat.

Oh, The Horror. The Horror.

Just because you've been married to a guy for 25+ years, don't go thinking you know him.

This morning Mr Swami happened to find half a glass of wine at his bedside. So he called it grape juice and drank it for breakfast. No problem there. But this got us to discussing breakfast beverages which is where things got freaky. We talked about different juices, and milks and milk flavors and old-time milkmen. When I was a child we had a milk man who came most every day. Mr Swami grew up on a dairy farm so he kind of was from a family of milkmen.

Anyway, Mr Swami said that his dad used to bring in a few jars of milk every morning for the family. I said "but it would barely have time to get cold in the frige." Mr Swami gave me a big grin. I said, "you mean you drank it warm from the cow!?!" He grinned more and said "Yes. And it was delicious!" I said "Ew. Ick! You might as well just suck it from the cow's tits!" He grinned even wider and said "And your point is?"

*gags*
*dry heaves*

That's when I stopped talking to him.

A Bookend for Zombie

And it's in b&w, lol. That's me - sitting on top of my first snowman which was built mostly by my big brother (the guy holding me on top of the snowman) and big sister (the girl with glasses in front of my brother.) For your reference, my brother was 6'7". You can see why I think snowmen should be BIG. It's a family tradition!

(My evil sister Carole is the little girl with the snow shovel; she was probably hoping I would fall down and impale myself. The dark-haired woman on the right is my brother's future wife, they were married that June. The other little girl lived next door - or maybe across the street, I forget which.

I Drink Too Much

Yesterday I went to the grocery store right at the ass-crack of dawn because I wanted to get home and start watching innauguration coverage. I needed pop. In fact I had been without pop for 2 days - a seriously huge withdrawal problem for me, the perpetually pop-addicted. So I barely sipped one cup of coffee (instead of my usual 2 - 3) before I jumped in the car. I know I was thirsty because I bought almost nothing but drinkables.

At the grocery store I bought:
2 kinds of pop
2% milk (mine)
soy milk (Mr Swami's)
half n half (both of us)
dietrite cola, 2 12-packs
diet cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper, 1 12-pack
orange juice
Cranberry juice
regular coffee stuff
decaff coffee stuff
2 cans of enchilada sauce (not a drink, but still a liquid)
... and 2 jars of SmartBalance Omega-3 chunky peanut butter. The peanut butter shelves were particularly well-stocked, lol.

So - anyone want a drink and some peanut butter on crackers? Amazingly, I spent $71 dollars buying all those drinks.

O! BA!!! MA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to our caucuses, precinct-by-precinct, and voted in our Primary. OBAMA!


Some of us put up really BIG signs. OBAMA!


WE waited in line and voted with this little red sticker as our only receipt. OBAMA!


I just can't wait!

Stupid Cat

I made a perfect Stupid Cat post but Blogger ate it. In protest of Stupid Blogger I will not attempt to recreate my perfectly worded post. That moment is over.

RIP Stupid Cat post.

Who Wants Hot Chocolate?

This was my thermometer this morning: !minus 34'F! Brrrr! Here in Minnesota we give our thermometers a real workout every now and then.


Pick a cup - any cup. (These are about 1/4 of my fancy teacup collection. (It's a Canadian thing.)


Bonus pic: Tom, my MIL, Tom's sister Pauline.

C-c-c-c-cold out there!

We are supposed to be below zero (day and night) until saturday. *shivers* So I am wearing warm fuzzy pants, thick fuzzy socks and a warm fuzzy zip-up top. I just turned the thermostat up (don't tell Mr Swami.) So I'm cold - but very, very comfy.

Remember last week when I said I had started having non-stop, cast-of-thousands dreams every night and I didn't know what they meant? Well, last night I got a narrator. He sounds like the guy who narrated The Ten Commandments and all those old Cecil B deMille movies. At first I was happy because the narrator kept telling me what everything meant, but eventually I hated the self-righteous, know-it-all prick. They're my dreams, dammit, and *I* get to decide what they mean! Or if they mean.

Monday News

The largest shelf is my house is called the floor. It's a handy-dandy shelf, that floor!

I think no one updates much in January because the days are too short.

Left-over spaghetti makes a really nice little lunch omelet. Which reminds me that we have a nice $50 coupon for one of my favorite little restaurants. Every meal I have ever had there has been delicious and unique. Plus it's a little street-front place. I like places like that that in preference to big and chain restaurants. What kind of restaurant do you like?

Quickies

Not Randoms; I'm more in the mood for a quickie.

1. Tuesday the outside temperture was -20'F. Our two indoor thermostats (on the lower level) are set at 68'F and 64'F. So the temp in my bedroom that evening was 77'F. !!!!! Heat rises, and a super-duper, hyper-insulated attic keeps the heat in. So we have to sleep with 2 windows cracked open about 2" all winter.

2. I am awash in dreams! Every night I have these huge, big, blockbuster dreams with everybody I know in them. We do everything we have ever done - all new but with deja vu. It's very wierd and I don't understand it. I get up to pee and it's all like Whoa - where the heck am I? disorientation.

3. Fish tacos. Ick. *shiver* ~gag~

4. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and turned in all my Holiday Dollars (in November & December my store gave back 4% of whatever you spent in the form of dollars-off store vouchers. The store also had a bunch of meat BOGO coupons in the newspaper. Anyway - I wound up saving $53 off my final bill. Considering that most of the time I don't even use coupons at all this is quite amazing to me.

5. I am still undecorating for Christmas. I just realized that I totally forgot about the kitchen, where I always swag a string of lights around the kitchen bay window, add a couple of golden bows at the corners and a little sparkly angel surrounded by golden harps and horns in the middle. I like gold and sparklies, lol.

Only five things instead of ten because these are quickies! No time for more!

My Poop Off Solution Came!

*happy dance*

Now cleaning up will be so much easier!!!

Edited to add: For those unfamiliar with the product, Poop Off is a miracle, non-toxic solution for cleaning bird cages. Very important for those of us with 4 birds!

Three New Things

I want to do three new, recurring things in 2009. These are not resolutions, just things to do that I will enjoy. So far I have come up with two. What should my third be? I feel like I'm in a work-at-home, stay-at-home rut - yet I do like being home.

THING ONE: learn to play bridge. I like to play cards. I grew up playing cards, but no one around here seems to play. I can take a 14 week course (meets 1x per week) to learn and practise the game, then join a league.

PROs: I am totally familiar with handling cards. I like everything tactile about cards,lol. The shuffling, the dealing, the grouping. I like card table chit-chat. I like the competitive aspect of trying to outwit your opponents.

CONs: I will have to drive into the city since the classes (and future league play) are at the St Paul Bridge Center - which has its own nice-looking little building. I have no idea who the other players will be or if I will even like them.

THING TWO: go for a weekly swim. When the kids were little we used to go to a local pool twice a week and swim. Both kids learned to swim in that pool and it was a lot of fun.

PROs: It is light exercise that is not stressful on my knees. The pool is right in "my" town, so no extra-long drives.

CONs: I will have to wear a bathing suit in public. Being all old and saggy-assed, I am not happy about this.

THING THREE: ??? I have no idea. I would like it to be at least semi-sociable. Any suggestions?

I Will Never Watch the Ball Drop Again!

TOSHIBA
TOSHIBA
TOSHIBA
TOSHIBA
TOSHIBA

WTF was up with that? Tiny little ball; big fat TOSHIBA. What a crock. Maybe next year the TV people should skip the ball and just cover Sushi live.