Here ya go Spidey

Ok. That's me in my evening gown doing the designer a favor by posing in his window for a few minutes.

The butterfly thing was a display outside the resort elevators.

That's BP's side of the bed. The walls were dark brown with big splashes of color from the Andy Warhol artwork.

That's part of the bathroom I fell in love with---the lump in the middle of the tub was the faucet and the water poured out like a waterfall. Loved it. I spent many happy moments soaking in that tub.

The last one is justone of the many flower arrangements around the resort. Gorgeous!

Back from Sin City

Hello! We got back from Vegas late last night.
I have to report that we had a great time. BP won a poker tournament (and $800)at the Planet Hollywood and I won enough at slots to pay for our air fare and hotel.
We stayed at the Wynn. Beautiful hotel. Beautiful room. (I’ll post pictures later.) We didn’t make it to any shows though—three days just wasn’t enough.
The Planet Hollywood is where the old Aladdin was. We loved the Aladdin—we stayed there a few years ago, had a Strip view room and it was great. The PH’s casino played the best music in any casino I’ve ever been in. It was a lively mix of 70’s, 80’s and current music. I was just sitting at the Wheel of Fortune machine boppin’ and singing along.
For any of you gambling aficionados, here’s my “secret” for doing well at slots:
1. Pick a machine (I like the $1 or the quarter machines).
2. Play maximum bet for THREE times ONLY.
3. If you win, keep playing that same machine for awhile until you hit something you consider “big”
4. If you don’t win anything within the 3 pulls, move on to the next machine.
5. Either you sit down at the right time, or you don’t. It’s that simple.

People worried me. Once I sat down beside an older lady who was playing a Powerball machine. She was RUBBING the screen when the bonus icon appeared. She’d rub and rub. I don’t know what that was supposed to do, but it wasn’t working for her.

Don’t EVER buy a Ferrari. There is a Ferrari showroom at the Wynn. They charge $10 just to get in the showroom to see a red car on display. What a crock. We didn’t fall for this shit (just so you know.) We did go into the Ferrari store just to look around--$95 for a KEY CHAIN. Yes, a key chain. Sheesh.

More later.

Saturday

BP and I have some shopping to do today. He wants to get a couple of new shirts to take on our trip (Spidey, we leave tomorrow and will be back on Wednesday.)
And since he never buys himself clothes, I readily agreed. The last new shirts he got were the ones I bought for him over five years ago.
I also have to clean the house. A friend from work is going to come over and take in the mail and newspaper and feed, water and play with the cat. She's done it before, but she's told me that she thinks we have a security camera on in the house, so when she's here she talks to us.
Our nice neighbor Bill is going to keep an eye on the place too.
We're dropping LP off at my sister's. He, of course, wanted to stay here by himself and I said "No way, Jose."

I'm going to meet a friend for coffee at Panera soon and then we might go shopping awhile. I don't want to buy Christmas presents. I want to buy a new piece of luggage for our Vegas trip on Sunday.

Yesterday at Connie's was enjoyable. The kids are cute. The food was great.

Last night my MIL, BP and I watched CSI. What an AWFUL episode--I went to bed in the middle of it.

My Thanksgiving offering

On Thursday the P's, my mother-in-law, and I are going to Muncie to my sister's for the holiday.

Here's what I am to bring:

My hot artichoke dip and pita chips/crackers

Green bean casserole (hey--someone always gets stuck making it. One year we did without and people complained!)

Yeast rolls

2 cans of that godawful cranberry crap that slides out of the can embedded with the can circles. Only three people eat it: BP, my mother and my ten year old nephew.


That's my offering at the table.

Cat Water Fountain

This is what I'm ordering for Nesta aka Miss Kiki Marie for Christmas. It's a cat water fountain that has a filter to keep the water fresh. Since she loves to drink from the kitchen faucet--which I am not successful at preventing--I thought this might do the trick.

November 18

Hello everyone.
Today is my Little Puddin's 17th birthday. My sister paid for two rooms in a nice hotel so yesterday we and some of his friends went shopping, ate at Ruth's Chris and stayed in the hotel for his birthday. Lynn and I watched No Reservations (with Catherine Zeta-Jones and it was awful and boring and boringly awful--they should take away the Oscar she won for Chicago.) Today I bought (not made) him a birthday cake.
Most of my time in New Jersey sucked The Big One. I'm glad to be back.
More later.
Anything new with you?

Praising Al Gore

This past week NBC's primetime shows featured green themes. The best newer show (it's in its sophomore year and definitely NOT suffering frrom Sophomore Slump!) on TV is Tina Fey's 30 Rock. Al Gore was one of the guest stars--playing himself, natch. Tina--aka Liz Lemon (one of the best sitcom names ever) was talking to him when he paused as if hearing something far off. "Wait, there's a baby whale crying somewhere. I must go help." Funny! The guy can laugh at himself.

Remember his reputation for being Stiff Al during the Clinton years? I think he was probably afraid that he'd do a huge mistep in public and it would haunt him the rest of his political life. Now he's looser, enjoying himself more. The best thing for Al was losing the election to Duyba. Not the best thing for the country, but probably the best thing for Al himself. He's doing what he loves, winning awards and bettering the planet.

What will Dubya do after his political life is over? Hmm, I dunno--go to Crawford and clear brush? Write a book? (snort---yeah, right!)

You can watch 30 Rock on NBC.com

And yet another reason to love Steve Carell

Bittersweet:

Production is shutting down on The Office because Steve Carell refuses to cross the Writers' picket lines to go to work.

I have nothing to blog about.

I have to go to fucking New Jersey next week.

I don't want to.

Bacon-on-bagel

1. I just had a bacon-on-bagel sandwich (or "Sammie" as the evil Rachael Ray would call it.) BP and I got up at 5:30am because LP called us and wanted to come home from a friend's house he was staying all night. He had fallen asleep at midnight, then gotten up and couldn't sleep so he played Halo 3, then got sleepy again, then woke up, etc. So we had to drive clear across town to pick him up. Of course he was hungry ("I just had some hot wings about 9 pm yesterday and nothing since.") So we stopped at Mickey D's on the way home and the two P's got food. When we got back home, I fed the cat took off my shoes and climbed back into bed and slept until 9. Both the P's are still asleep: BP in our bed, and LP on the sofa in the living room. I'm waking them both up in an hour.

2. I did fill the bird feeders yesterday but need to refill the bird bath today. Also I crumbled up some old bread and English muffins and threw those out near the feeders. It's a freakin' Bird Buffet.

3. Kohl's is having a sale (when aren't they having a sale?) so I'm going to go and buy a few pairs of black slacks and possibly a new winter coat if I can find one I like. I don't wear the longer coats anymore--they're uncomfortable driving in--in the driver's seat, I have to lift up my ass and pull the coat back over so I can move. I want a shorter coat-either knee length or one that hits just below my butt.

4. Nothing else of note. I'm going to go and put in a load of laundry in the washer. Have a good day

Books, Crap & Birds

1. I received a personalized signed copy of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s book Crimes Against Nature. It's about how Dubya and his corporate friends are raping and killing the environment. He was signing his book at DePauw University, and so a friend sent me one. Not for free. I paid for it, but he stood in line and had it signed.

2. There's a craft show here today. There are usually about a 100 booths. I can't decide whether or not to go. I like walking around and seeing stuff, but I neither want nor need any more crap to bring home.

3. I need to fill my birdfeeders. I haven't filled them in a few weeks, and ths morning when I went outside to get the newspaper I saw about six birds carrying signs that said "A cheapass woman who doesn't fill her feeders lives here!"

Thursday

The best part of my day was leaving for work this morning and walking to the garage. I look up and the sky was dark, clear, and I saw Orion in the sky. Clear as a bell. Lots of other stars, but Orion stood out. Knowing how to identify Orion was one of the things that have stayed with me from my freshman year astronomy class. I’m a whiz at identifying constellations and various stars within. One of the things I’d like to do sometime is to go to the Arizona desert, or up in a mountain somewhere—away from city lights—and star gaze.

I’ve started a “Life List.” You know, a list of things you want to do while you still can and before your Life’s Bucket is kicked. I think I’ll put “Do more star gazing” on it.
I asked BP to name things he wants to do, and we had some of the same things in common.
Here’s a partial list. Try to see if you can identify which are MY items and which are BP’s:

Build a submarine
Take pilot lessons
Produce alternative biofuels
Take a train trip through India
Learn conversational French
Visit British Columbia



The rest of the work day sucked—all our email, internet connections, were down and will be down until tomorrow afternoon. So I spent most of the day reading.
I’m going to pay some bills and then enjoy an evening of fine television viewing: Survivor, 30 Rock and The Office.

Tomorrow morning I have a teeth cleaning appointment!

Field Trip to CHEMNITZ?

Drawings on Display

Mango Martini

Last night Iwas our Girls Night Out dinner. They voted for Olive Garden which was okay. (Next time you go try a Mango Martini. It was lucious.) I guess it was bash men night because a friend of one of the Girls just got divorced after 33 years of marriage. Her husband had cheated on her and she felt like enough was enough. Aside from the bashing it was a fun evening.

I went out to get the paper this morning and there was frost on the ground! The first frost of the season. When it dries up, I have GOT to get out there today and work!

I'm taking today off because 1. I need to eat up some days off before the first of the year, and 2. I have to go to small claims court today to get a judgment against a former tenant.

It's beautiful out today so hopefully I can do some garden clean up today or tomorrow.

I posted something about reading Rag's blog and what a run-of-the-mill bitch she was to her boyfriend, but decided to delete it.

Spidey!

Thanks Spidey for the wonderful Halloween card I got in the mail today. After a long ass day of boring meetings your card was a delight!

Orange Zinnia, Pink Zinnia with not so much mildew

Open Letter to My Puddin

Dear Puddin,



It is now 50 days past the agreed upon deadline to get rid of this disgusting rusted out van that is sitting near our garage. Two tires are flat. A family of spiders has taken up residence in the rusty body of the van. Please evict them. NOW! Thank you.

Love,

Your loving wife

Saturday

I didn’t leave at noon yesterday—I left at 3, so the day went better than anticipated. A few of us went out to lunch, and that was fun.

It’s Saturday and I don’t know why but I woke up at 6:30 and since I couldn’t go back to sleep I figured that I might as well get up. I started a load of laundry and I’m thinking about going out for coffee.

Our cat has been scratching more than normal the last month or two. It’s not fleas. I asked a cat lover at work about it and she said her old cat did that and the vet advised her to change the cat’s food—something other than poultry. So I looked for non-poultry cat food at the store last night. Do you know how hard that was??? Read the ingredients on a cat food label some time. Gross. I finally settled on a salmon dry food which listed chicken waaaaay down on the ingredient list so we’ll try that. I figured this morning when I put out her food she’d notice that difference. If she did she didn’t say anything (ha) and ate with gusto. I hope this helps—my cat friend said that the vet would gladly run tests to see exactly what food her cat had an allergy to, but that could be very expensive.

I contributed to Hillary’s campaign yesterday. I was talking to my brother last week. First, let me explain something. I came from a very political and strictly Democratic family—and that was extremely hard in staid, Republican Indiana. It was true 30 years ago and unfortunately it’s true today. My mother and father and paternal grandparents were active in local politics and instilled in all of us a sense of community service and political activity.

So a few years ago I was shocked when my brother came out as voting for Bush of all fucking people! MY brother! We’ve had some very animated conversations let me tell you.

Anyway last week Matt mentioned that he was voting for Hillary! “WHAT?” I said as I hugged him. “You’ve come home! The Prodigal Brother returns!” After he stopped laughing he said that he’s turned into a One-Issue Voter. “Any politician who is pro-stem cell research gets my vote from this day forward.” He’s a diabetic and very active with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Well, he picked the right party to support. Those SOBs in the Conservative wing of the Republican Party are convinced that stem cell research is on a par with abortion. Idiots. So my brother will vote for Hillary. YAY!