Lazy Dog!

Besides taking up most of our king size bed, Simba now prefers to sleep in. He has even started covering his face when we turn the lights on.

You've got to be kidding me!

"Couple finds religious reminder in Cheetos bag."

Random Stuff...

It seems like I did so much last week. I was constantly working at the house or going to the gym. Then Rommel came home with a fever Thursday, I caught whatever he had, and everything stopped. Of course I still got a few things done here and there, but I was mostly recovering when I was not at work.

One thing that I did get done was putting up our new bird feeding station. Rommel and I try to always have food out for the birds, believing it is good karma,etc, but we have had some trouble with feeders, etc. First I made the mistake of getting a wooden bird feeder, which the squirrels chewed holes in. I hoped moving it from the palm tree to a shepherd's hook would help keep them away from it, knowing the whole time it probably wouldn't. We finally bought a "squirrel proof" feeder that uses a weight system. It does work, but is so heavy we had to hang it from a hook on the side of the house instead of the shepherd's hook. This means that all the excess bird seed falls in a pile next to the house which I absolutely hate because I know it attracts rats. Yuck.

I finally found this bird feeding station that would hold up to three feeders, a water dish, and a mesh tray for nuts, etc. It was only $30 which was definitely appealing, but you never know how sturdy the poles will be. Surprisingly it is really, really nice. I did place a wooden dowel through the hollow pole to make it extra strong since the bird seed can weigh a lot. It is the perfect solution to all our bird feeding problems. Eventually I will make a base of some sort with rock or mulch because the birds will kill the grass underneath the feeders.


Since I moved the feeder away from the house, we have be getting a lot of new visitors, including larger birds like blue jays. One of the birds we have seen is the black-headed grosbeak pictured below. It is a gorgeous bird with a vibrant orange chest.

(picture from Whatbird.com)

I also had my first "harvest" from my vegetable garden, which was some sugar snap peas. Only a few vines are producing anything ready to pick, so there were not very many, but Rommel said they are really good. Of course, almost anything that comes from your own organic garden is pretty good.

Jen Lancaster Rocks!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that Jen Lancaster's new book, Pretty in Plaid: A Life, a Witch, and a Wardrobe, or, the Wonder Years Before the Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smart Ass Phase, comes out today! I loved her first three books, which were about her experiences with unemployment, live in the big city, and weight loss. She is a wonderful writer with a fabulous sense of humor who you will absolutely fall in love with.

In other words, go buy the book!!!

Sick Day

I spent my whole day off in bed sick after catching the flu from my husband (thanks for that honey!). My mind was not quite in top form, so instead of reading I decided to watch TV all day. Luckily there was a Rob & Big marathon on MTV and I just love Rob and Big Black. How can you not like two guys with lots of time on their hands and money to spend on stupid things who have a bulldog and a mini horse? My favorite episode is the one where they are driving in Hollywood and a spider man look-a-like stops in the middle of the road. They keep honking at him and he gets angry and throws his big gulp at their car. They end up buying a net gun and chasing him down. Obviously you have to see it to understand just how hilarious it is because my story telling does not do it any justice.

There were also several episodes of Made showing. I cannot help but watch it when it is on. Maybe I just like to see that other people had a miserable time in high school like I did. But I am also happy to see things turn out well for them. There was this one episode on yesterday that kind of pissed me off though. This girl Carrie wanted to have more confidence and be more girly. She could be kind of catty and annoying but that was probably because she was constantly being compared to her older brother who did not even go to school there anymore. Her coach was going to help her be more confident and find her "passion", which was acting. She was also supposed to find a date to her winter formal. This dumbass found out that she was going to be on the show and basically acted like he was into her so that he could get time on TV. Eventually she finds out that he really doesn't care for her and she finds someone else who is cute and totally into her, but more importantly she realizes that she is not her brother and can make her own place in school. (Hopefully the other guy will always be known as the asshole who tried to get face time on Made.)

You cannot watch that show without thinking about your own high school experience. I would like to say that I did not hate high school, but I did. I really hated high school, like with a passion. I went to an extremely small high school with a graduating class of one hundred people, most of which I had known since kindergarten. It was the type of school that was centered around the athletic department, which I stayed as far away from as I possibly could. I was not popular, but I was not an outcast or anything of that nature. I was pretty involved, participating in choir, plays, yearbook, math club, etc. But I was always focused on what was after high school. My hometown was so small there was no diversity or culture, just corn fields. I hated high school because of the lack of opportunity and the fact that everyone knew who you were. I think one of the happiest days of my life was when I graduated because I knew there were bigger and better things waiting for me in the world.

Of course I have a few good memories of high school, but I have blocked out most of those four years. It's great that people are excited about their class reunions and stuff like that, but I am not someone who looks forward to getting wasted in the town park.