Take Cover! The Sky is Falling!

Damn the storm last night rattled me, rattled my house, even rattled my cats!

It wasn't the worst storm I've ever lived through but that wind was wicked last night.  Some storms, it's better to crawl into bed, pull the covers over your head and try to fall asleep to get through the storm.

I went to my bedroom and was getting ready for bed when I heard it.  Something metallic banging outside of my bedroom window!  What the HECK!  I tried to look out the window to see what was going on but it was too dark to see anything.  I do know that just below that window is my satellite dish and in my mind, that was hanging now by a thread, making that banging metallic sound I was hearing.

The sound quieted down a bit, I crawled into bed when the wind kicked up again and BAM BAM BAM.  I totally freaked myself right out.  My imagination goes from 0-100 in 1.2 seconds.  The satellite dish is on top of a small roof that is over where the window seat in the dining room juts out of the house, which is right below my bedroom window.  In my mind, this is what was going to happen:

The satellite dish was going to come unhooked from the house, swing down on its wires and come crashing through the dining room window.  The cats were all going to jump out of the broken window, run right into the street and all get hit by cars.  See how my mind works?  I saw all of that in my head in literally less than a second.  I am my own worst enemy some days.

I got right back out of bed, made the bed back up, grabbed my pillow and went downstairs to sleep on the couch.  I figured if I was downstairs, I could be right there to stop my cats from jumping out the window and dying once the satellite broke that window!  Hey, it made sense to me.

We all made it through the night alive and with no broken windows.  I came upstairs to get dressed and I heard that damn banging again.  I thought for sure that satellite dish was swinging in the breeze.  I got dressed, fed the cats, grabbed a flashlight and went outside to assess the damage.  I was shocked at what I saw!

It's the aluminum cover over the wood of the window frame.  I should be happy that the damage wasn't worse.  The piece didn't come off totally and it doesn't seem to have taken any siding off with it.  So, I will move my bed a little, take that window out, hang out my window and nail that back onto the house.

If anyone is driving by my house and sees me hanging out that window, please do not call 9-1-1.  I'm ok and just trying to fix my window!!

Um, on the other hand . . . if you see me hanging out that window, perhaps head down, leg caught in the window?  Call for help!

Wish me luck!

We Made it Through Christmas

We all know that Christmas isn't for everyone.  It doesn't mean to me what it used to and it's a chore to get through it some years.  I'm not in the dark place about Christmas that I have been in previous years, but I pretty much tried to ignore it, get through my long weekend and get back to reality.

Phil, playing his Santa, was busy that weekend, go figure!  I wasn't doing much cooking over the weekend, and I decided not to do a lot of adulting either.  I spent the weekend with my Netflix!  That wasn't a bad way to pass the weekend.

I have a list of shows on Netflix that I want to see.  If I'll ever make the time to do it, I don't know.  But, for this weekend I chose Sons of Anarchy for my Netflix binge watching marathon!!!

Ok, not very Christmasy.  Lots of blood, guts, death, dismembering, basic mayhem.  Season one was FABULOUS!  Season two, also AWESOME!  Season three . . . meh.  I was struggling.  However . . . the season finale episode of Season three was STELLAR!  That was some damn good television watching!  That one episode made Season three worth it!  Damn!  Now only four more seasons and I'll have seen them all.

So, another long weekend for binge watching is coming up.  Blood and guts aside, I plan on spending as much of my weekend as I can with some tatted up biker boys again.  Yep, them grungy men made this old lady's heart beat a little faster.

What can I say . . . I've always had questionable taste in men!

Which is Worse?

I was cleaning the bathroom this morning and I started to think about cleaning.  Specifically, what is the WORST part of cleaning your house.

I mean seriously, no part of cleaning your house is fun, but let's face it, some chores are better than others.

So, I tried to come up with what was my least favorite part.  You'd think it had to do with scooping poop.  Let's face it, I have four cats.  That means I have five litter boxes which get cleaned between three and seven times a week.  One thing about cats, that are great at peeing, pooping and puking.  I clean up all three so regularly that none of it bothers me anymore.

Cleaning up cat hair?  Naw, again, it's part of every day life around here.  My favorite is scraping up the cat hair that is glued to the floor by hairspray.  Good times!

Cleaning a toilet?  Not the worst thing I can think of.  Cleaning grout?  Nope, not even close.

I contacted some family members to find out what their least favorite chore was. 

My sister Cathie said her least favorite was cleaning the tub.  Yuck, not a fun job.

Jim said his least favorite was a tie between doing dishes and dusting.  Yeah, like I said,  none are great and I'm not a fan of either of these either.

Jenny's was a toss up between mopping the floors and finding homes for all the the stuff the boys have!  Ugh, there has to be an easier way!

My least favorite??  I HATE, and I mean HATE . . . cleaning the hair from the vacuum sweeper's roller.  This job makes me gag every time.  I don't know what there is about this job but I absolutely hate it and would happily pay someone to clean it out for me every week.

Oh yeah, and then that person can clean the tub, do the dishes, dust, mop the floors and put all of MY crap away!  They all suck!

Broken Boy

Yesterday afternoon, I grabbed a garbage bag and went about picking up garbage from my yard.

I live on a relatively busy street and people have no problem throwing crap out of their cars into my yard on their way by my house.  I've blogged and facebooked before about the kind of stuff I've picked up from my yard.  Fast food bags, liquor bottles, condoms (new and used!), a bag of crack, soda cans, mail, car parts, knives, etc.

Yesterday I found a broken boy.

I don't know what it was, it felt like pottery.  But for some reason, this made me so sad.

What made someone throw this out?  What was it?  I wish I knew his story.

Why I Hate the Dentist

I've had a lifetime of bad experiences with dentists.  I will give you one example out of many.

As a kid, maybe 10 or so, I had a tooth grow in the roof of my mouth.  Obviously it had to come out.  The dentist we had was not a nice person nor was he a good dentist.  I'm a terrified kid about to have a tooth pulled and he's yelling at me to sit still.  To make sure I complied, I ended up with his knee on my chest holding me down while he pulled the tooth.  That's a hard thing to get over.

So now I'm a terrible patient.  I need handled with kid gloves.  I don't go as often as I should not only because I have no dental insurance but because I have to be really NEEDING to go to make an appointment.

Last month I was trying to be responsible and had a cleaning and had x-rays taken of all of my teeth.  One cavity had to be fixed, bottom front of my mouth.

I went at the end of November for this filling.  When the Novocaine wore off, the front of my chin was painful to the touch.  It's where the needle went in so I didn't think much of it.  I figured a couple of days I'd be fine.

The pain from the needle stick went away but holy cow my tooth HURT.  It hurt to brush it, it hurt drink cold water, it freakin' hurt.  If I have to call the dentist for another appointment you know it has to be bad because I hate going to the dentist.  But I was hurting and called on Tuesday and got an appointment for Thursday morning.  On Tuesday I didn't know if I'd make it to Thursday it hurt so bad.

You'll never believe what happened on Thursday morning.  I woke up and my tooth didn't freakin' hurt!  Seriously.  I kept my appointment, told him how much pain I had been in but woke up pain free.  They took a panoramic x-ray of my teeth to see if anything was going on since the face full of x-rays I just had done two weeks prior but they didn't show any infection or any problem.  Since I didn't hurt, I assumed all should be good aside from another big hit on my checkbook.  He said he can't find anything wrong with the tooth, all should be good going forward.

Guess what happened Thursday night!  Yep, tooth started hurting again.  Friday it was worse.  Today is Saturday and I barely ate breakfast with this damn tooth and I don't know what to do anymore.  I thought I would scream when I brushed my teeth, again with no cold water or soda, my tooth f-ing hurts.  I may have found the secret to weight loss because I can't eat.  I can't bite, I can't chew, the damn tooth hurts when my tongue touches it.

I really don't know what to do.  I was just at the dentist and he said nothing is wrong.  I'm broke after paying for a full set of x-rays, a panoramic x-ray, a cleaning and a crappy filling.  And I hurt like hell.  And I am beyond frustrated.

Brr I'm Cold!

Monday started out so good!  I mean for real, it was a good morning!

I just woke up in a good mood.  Not an easy task for a Monday.  I worked all day and didn't have to slap anyone, no one slapped me, a good day.  I walked in the house after work and BRR, it was a bit chilly in here!

I keep my thermostat at 68 during the day, 64 at night.  I looked at the temperature in the house and it was 62 at six in the afternoon!  What the heck!  I ran to the basement and looked at the furnace.  It wasn't on fire and it was still there.  That was the extent of my expertise!  Next I did what I do best . . . I called my brother Mike.

Mike and his tools came over but alas this was more than an easy fix.  It needed parts and there was no way he could fix it that night.  He called a heating company and luckily he talked to them because I swear they were taking in another language.  I understood about every other word.

The guy didn't have the parts I needed on his truck so he said someone would be at the house in the morning.  IN THE MORNING!!!!!!!!  That means a night without heat!!!  Ok, we're not exactly having arctic temperatures right now but still!  I am a wuss at heart.

My brother Mike and my niece Jenny both offered up their houses to me.  I thought I could tough it out.  Besides, I was kinda worried about the cats.  They are not used to roughing it either!

It really wasn't a horrible night, just a little uncomfortable.  I did everything I could do to make it better.  I put an extra blanket on the bed, I put a heating pad IN the bed to warm up the sheets before I got in and I even let the cats in the bedroom for the night.  Hey, it was worth it for the extra heat!  Funny side story.  All four cats were on the bed that night, but Ava was the one that figured out how to crawl under the covers with me!  I woke in the morning to see see her little head on my pillow and the rest of her under the covers.  Yeah, she's the smart one!

Luxury Heating Co and Wayne in particular are now on my favorites list.  He showed up when he was scheduled to show up, he had me up and running in 15 minutes.  I had FIRE!

Ok, it was an easy fix for him, but he took his time, looked at the whole unit and even took the time to educate me on what I should know about the whole thing.  That included going up to the second floor with me to show me how the vents are SUPPOSED to be opened!  Geez, I've owned this house for 12 years and I'm just learning now how to work the vents!  He knew what he was talking about!

All in all, Monday started good, then went bad.  Tuesday started bad (57 degrees in my house!) but ended good.   You don't know how spoiled you are until your furnace goes out.  I am very thankful to have my heat back!

God Bless America

I've seen this display a few times now and I just had to go take pictures of it.  This flag is HUGE!  That cut out of the navy man is life size.

This is in Avon on Detroit Road just east of Long Avenue.  Gorgeous.

I Usually Want to Know You Better Before I Want to Hit You!

I stopped at Giant Eagle the other night after work.  I really was daydreaming or something that day, because I sure wasn't paying attention to what I was doing or where I was going.

I walked aimlessly up and down the aisles to buy two things, cereal and fabric softener.  Yeah, some times that's just how my mind works.  I went to walk into a check out line and seriously, I was NOT paying attention.  I ran right into the woman standing at the check out, signing the little gadget where she ran her credit card.

She looked back at me shocked!  Her husband, that was standing right in front of her, looked at me with the weirdest look on his face.  I am hoping it was just shock as well.  I mean for real.  There was NO reason I ran into this poor woman with my shopping cart.  It was ALL my fault and it was solely because I was not paying attention.

Without missing a beat, I said "DAMN!  I usually know a person better before I want to hit them!  I'm usually really nice to strangers!"

Ugh.  I did apologize after that and luckily the nice couple understood that I was joking.  She accepted my apology, we all laughed and they went on their way.  The poor cashier could barely look at me without cracking up.

I am sorry.  I know I didn't hit her hard, I just nudged her with the shopping cart but still.  I should have been paying attention.  I hope I at least made them laugh about this story when they retold it.  Either that or they headed right to the police station to put out a restraining order.

Yeah, that one could have gone either way.

Happy Thanksgiving, Part 2

Yeah, I know.  It took me awhile to get part 2 here!

Last Saturday, most of my family was at my nephew Michael's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  From where I sat, we had a great time!  My niece and her family came from New York state, my brother and brother in law came from Pennsylvania and those of us that are living in Ohio, well, we showed up too.  I dearly missed my sister and her husband from California at the table.  We talked about you Cathie, if that counts!!

I wish I would have taken more pictures because for 14 of us, you can't BELIEVE how much food was there!  I was able to take home so many leftovers, I ate all week on it and finished the last piece of ham for lunch!  I do love leftovers.

Out of all of the holidays that we celebrate, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite.  When I still lived in Erie, I cooked Thanksgiving at my Mom's and there were years I had everyone to my apartment for Thanksgiving dinner.  My favorite holiday, some of my favorite foods.  With so many things in my life to be thankful for, this holiday has just always resonated in me.  After my birthday, this is my favorite day of the year!

I wish I'd have taken more pictures but I think I'm out of the picture taking habit.  I didn't even think about it until some of the family had left the table already!  So, I'll post what little I have but trust me, there was so much more!

Let's start with the family!  From the bottom right corner in the yellow striped shirt going clockwise is my brother Mike, his wife Mary Jane, my brother-in-law Bill, my brother Phil, my niece JoBeth, her husband Brad.

 

The other side of the table had starting with Mike again, Bill's shoulder, brother Phil, JoBeth, Brad, across the table is my niece Jenny, her son Evan on the couch, my brother Jim.  Aargh, I wish I'd have taken pictures before the kids left the table!  I didn't even get my nephew Mike in either shot!

Speaking of the kids, they have ALL grown like weeds since the last I saw them.  How can that be?  I'm not getting older, so how can they be changing so much so fast?

On to the food!  The stuffing before it went in the oven, and the carrots cut up and ready to cook!  Oh my goodness, waaaay too many carrots!  I should know, I took all of the left over carrots home.  It's going to be a looooong time until I cook carrots again.

 

 

I sucked up to the host and made him a batch of my almost famous party mix!  This stuff to some of us is like crack.  One bite and you're addicted.  I had to promise additional batches to other family members so as not to leave anyone out!

And my favorite part, the city chicken!!  Considering how long it's been since I had made this, I thought it came out great!  This was a piece of comfort food for me.  The round patties on the top are the "breading patties".  My mom took the rest of the beaten egg and the rest of the breadcrumbs from breading the city chicken, mixed them together and formed patties.  They would also get fried and baked with the chicken.  This was because my Mom never threw food away, so the eggs and breadcrumbs were made into SOMEthing.  We didn't know that as kids.  All we knew is the breading patties were awesome and we used to fight over them!  Mom would end up with one or two small ones only.  I purposefully had extra eggs and crumbs to make more patties.  Like I said, comfort food and happy thoughts of my Mom.

And THIS isn't even a drop in the bucket!  We also had a ham, two turkey breasts, backed russet potatoes AND baked sweet potatoes, cheese trays, fruit trays, pies, cupcakes, and gravy.  Man oh man did we have gravy!  As requested, I heated up six jars of gravy and believe it or not, most of it got thrown away.  Go figure!!  Four jars are put in the cupboard for next year.  Or for the next TWO years!  Yeah, two bottles would have been more than enough.  Phht!  And oh so much more food that I'm forgetting to mention.

Do you SEE why this is my favorite holiday?  Aaah, this did my heart good.  It was a great day filled with a ton of great food, hugs, kisses, stories, and lots and lots of laughter!