Blogger Notes

[Discussing the "Twilight" phenomenon]

Sy: I think that women love vampire stories because it speaks of the most exciting type of love. Like, "I know that you are dangerous and bad for me, but I love you so much, I'm willing to take that risk and sacrifice myself to be with you."

SSB: I want to see the story of them later in life when they have a bunch of kids and he's an insurance salesman.

Sy: That can't happen because they are vampires. They can't stay in a place too long because they don't get old. Like Casey Kasem.

SSB: So can they be killed, can they die?

Sy: Well they could be torn apart, and burned. Also, I think vampires need to eat.

SSB: What? You mean you have to feed vampires? I suppose you're going to tell me next that you have to clean up after them as well. [referring to a stupid comment made during our city's chicken ordinance meeting where someone said we shouldn't allow chickens because the owners might not realize that the chickens would need food and water and to be cleaned up after. Really?? Come on ignorant chicken haters, can't you come up with something better?]

Sy: Do vampires poop?

SSB: I wonder if that would make good fertilizer. We could have a coop of chickens and a coop of vampires...

Sy: I should go to this TwilightLexicon blog and ask the lady there if vampires poop. She's an expert; she would know. I bet that would make great fertilizer -- high in nitrogen...
I could write: "Do vampires, as the book "Everyone Poops" implies, actually poop?"

SSB: I'm sure they'd love you for it. They'd ask, "Why did you have to spoil all the romance with your poop talk?"

Sy: "Because I'm Sy. That's what I do. I need to know these things."

The key phrase in this story is "condiment-related crimes". Does that come with a special unit?


Cops bust woman, 74, for pouring mayo in book drop from Yahoo!News
Mon Jun 14, 9:27 pm ET

BOISE, Idaho – Police in Idaho think they might have solved a yearlong condiment crime spree. Authorities said a 74-year-old Boise woman arrested after pouring mayonnaise in the Ada County library's book drop box is a person of interest in at least 10 other condiment-related crimes.

Joy L. Cassidy was picked up Sunday at the library, moments after police say she pulled through the outside drive-through and dumped a jar of mayo in the box designated for reading materials.

Cassidy was released from jail and faces a misdemeanor charge of malicious injury to property.

Boise police say Cassidy is under investigation for other cases of vandalism that started in May 2009. Library employees have reported finding books in the drop box covered in corn syrup and ketchup.

I was trying to get some laundry done yesterday when I ran in to a slight road block - no detergent. I have really sensitive skin and delicate clothes, so I can only use certain detergents - Dreft has been my detergent of choice for some time. Well Dreft is really expensive, so I usually only purchase it from Sam's Club. Well, it was still really expensive - $25!!

I have been reading No Impact Man after watching the movie (I highly recommend both) and have since been even more convinced that I should try laundry detergents better for the environment, and hopeful also better for me. There are quite a few recipes online for baking soda and bar soap (or in my sensitive case - baby shampoo) detergents that are supposed to be just as effective as the industrial chemical detergents I have been using. For tougher loads, you just add a little Borax (that's a laundry booster powder, not the guy that goes around acting like he's from Kazakhstan). So I get 8lbs of baking soda to go with the 10 bags of kettle chips I already have in my cart. And don't forget the rechargeable batteries and fair trade coffee! I now have my mega McGruber list (my husband and I used to refer to these as our McGyver lists -- as in those crazy scavenger lists that McGyver would create in order to solve a problem -- but I thought "McGruber" was probably more inline).

On my way home I was passing by the university experiment farm and I see something that makes me doubletake and gasp. There is a hole in that cow!!
No.
OH, HOLY SHIT YEAH! THERE IS DEFINITELY A HOLE IN THAT COW!!!!

I raced home and Googled "why is there a hole in that cow" (cuz that's how it's done), and I get back this:



I'm sure most of you could have gone your whole life without seeing that. But I know you are dying to know if the baking soda worked...


Like a charm. :)

I thought I would get more time to blog with the new job, but things just seem to come up and fill the void.

My son has suddenly decided that he will join everything in school. Although I really appreciate finally seeing ambition sparked in him, it also means that I am lugging him all over Western Wisconsin. Next year looks to be even worse as he has even bigger plans for his final year in high school.
Can you believe it? He's going to be graduating next year! We have absolutely NO money saved either. My big plan for the rental properties helping to pay for his college came up empty when the myth of property values only increasing was busted. Thanks Bush. Deregulation really does work! (note sarcastic tone; cause you know that the people in the Gulf of Mexico are living deregulation right now -- but that's another post...)

My parents came for a rare visit to see my tulips in bloom. And the early hot weather almost left them with nothing to look at! Luckily we got some cool weather right before they came and the ones that were left hung on long enough for their visit. We also took them to the MN Landscape Arboretum. They had tons of tulips left there.

And I was going to go to the arboretum this Saturday to see all their peony in bloom, but that plan was shot in the ass when a bizarre thing happened earlier this week...

My husband got a call asking us about our next door neighbor. Apparently she put us down as a reference in her application to host an exchange student. After my husband told the woman how great our neighbor was, the woman asked if we would take an exchange student. They had a student whose host family had backed out at the last minute. He said that he'd get back to her.

I was, as usual, ready to leap into the adventure; but SSB was, as usual, a little more hesitant to take on the challenge. JD, our son, was excited yet nervous. We decided that I would call her and ask her some more questions.

The woman was practically signing me up as I spoke to her. She was a very positive, energetic person and it was hard to say no. She said that she actually still had four boys to place and went over each of them with me. In the end, I couldn't say no. We decided to take the Brazilian boy that she had originally asked my husband about. His letter to his potential host family sounded like something that my son would write, and the parents letter sounded like something we would write about our son. Sounded like a perfect fit.

We've always talked about getting an exchange student, but never got around to looking into it. This just dumped into our lap. It was Fate. And when Fate throws something like this my way, I don't think too much about it, I just do it. It is generally a great gift.

Besides, I figured that we'd have all summer to get our house in order. And that put everyone at ease.
Then I got a call from the exchange woman asking if we could set up a time this weekend to meet at our house so that they could look things over and take pictures.

WHAT?!! Ugh! My house is in shambles because it is growing season and I have mud and planting stuff everywhere. Plus there are tons of home improvement projects that we have been putting on hold. We have a huge hole in the plaster in our stairwell that we have been living with since we bought the house. The ceiling in the hall upstairs still has water damaged wallpaper hanging from it from before we bought the house. I never completed the trim in the bathroom after we tiled. The house exterior had never been completely painted since I got injured at work so it is half green, purple & blue and half white in no pattern that makes sense. Our front steps are falling apart. Our screens on the porch are still shredded from the hail storm about ten years ago. In other words, our house is a mess!! And don't even get me started on my son's room!

So I am scrambling to put a ginormous bandaid on everything. I am almost finished painting the front of the house so at least when they take a picture it will look nice. You can actually see the carpet in my son's room now. SSB cleaned the porch - WOW, does it look nice! And now I just have to do EVERYTHING ELSE!

Wish us luck :)