The flu saga

This flu has been brutal. I feel I’m about 80% of capacity, but now BP has it. What is it about men that makes them awful patients? It’s like he’s the only person who’s been sick. “I must have it worse than you did, Puddin.” Umm. Noo. I just have to do some things so I dragged myself up a few hours to get them accomplished.

I made the mistake of giving him this little bell to ring when he needed something. Last night he slept in our bed and I slept on the couch—for a few reasons: 1. I didn’t want to try to sleep with his feverish, sweaty body tossing and turning all night. 2. I was still coughing a lot and didn’t want to wake him up.

By the third time he’d rang that damned bell in the middle of the night, I wanted to shove it up his ass or cram it down his throat. “Puddin, can I have some cold water?” “I need a straw.” “It’s time for my cough medicine.” “I think I need another flu pill.” “Would you run this washcloth under cold water, it’s too hot.” “I feel awful.”

Throughout the night I was worried that we'd have some kind of emergency (a fire . . a robber . . .an earthquake . . .) and I'd have to try and haul BP's sick ass outside. Thank God nothing like that happened.

I didn’t even hear the alarm this morning and overslept and was late for work. Work today was more than pleasant when I realized that the alternative was to answer that damned bell all day.

Anyway, BP is slightly better because today he’s eaten two popsicles (“Do we have any of the red ones left?”), a small hunk of French bread, an over-medium egg (“with just a tiny bit of salt and a medium amount of black pepper, Puddin”), a blueberry muffin and two Saltines. He’s also had lots of water and an orange Gatorade.

Please cross your fingers that LP doesn’t get it. Thank you.

I feel like crap. I'm sick. Chills. Fever. Coughing. My bones hurt yesterday.
But I have to go into work for at least a little while today because we're so freaking busy.
Blech

The world can rest easy: Baller won $500,000 on Big Brother. He's giving $100,000 to an autism charity to help the same kids he called retarded.

Orent-licker

I got a lot accomplished on my day off. I have bags of mulch and mushroom compost and peat and potting soil heaped in my yard. I moved around some yard things to make room for the family of gnomes coming to stay for the summer.

Boy is Indiana ever popular with the Democratic candidates, but we haven’t seen McCain which doesn’t disappoint me any. Hillary and Obama are running constant television and radio ads. It feels so special to be courted.

One local politician-guy caught my interest just because of his name: David Orentlichter. Pronounced Orent-licker. I looked up his website and seems he’s both a physician and an attorney. I wonder if he’s ever sued himself for malpractice. Anyway, the pictures on his website are pretty bland: One of him, his wife and their 2.1 children looking all “Ideal family.” One of him with two hard hat-types—this is probably to impart the fact that he’s pro-jobs. And one of him reading to African American kids (one’s looking bored as hell.

I think it would be refreshing to hear a candidate say “I have no new ideas. I’m dumb as a post. I just want to go to Washington so I can get free haircuts, free postage, free health care, a kickass retirement, and get wined and dined by people wanting my vote on legislation.Vote for me! I’m John J. Dumbass and I approve this message.”

Day Off

I've decided to take off work tomorrow to head to Menard's and get my Spring order of mulch, peat moss, and other gardening accoutrements.

I might insist that BP take off too and go to Panera's with me before Menard's. He's not a coffee person--he loves tea.

We had a wonderful Sunday. We grilled hamburgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob. It was (as Racheal Ray would say) "yummo."

I tok a shower and am headed off to read.

Lesson for the day

BP got the mower ready for this season and the LP mowed the lawn yesterday.
Remember: Do not scalp your grass! Set your mower at about three inches high so your grass can get thick and remain healthy. Set too low can cause bare spots in your lawn and invite disease and weeds to sprout.

Having said that, why not get rid of most of your lawn and plant some native plants. Lawns are old leftovers from English lords and ladies and palatial estates to show how wealthy you were. Nowadays with gas prices so high, we don't need vast expanse of lawns. Lawns require fertilizers and water and gas for mowing whch releases god awful chemicals into the air.

Once established native plants (easy to research what is best for your area of the country) require very little care and water and fertilizer. Plus you'll be doing all the little birdies, butterflies, ladybugs, earthworms and other beneficiary buggy boos a massive favor by providing food and shelter.

Google "(Your State name) native plant list" or email Ded---I'm sure he'll be happy to help you. :)

Survivor

I'm watching Fans Vs Favorites Survivor, and while she's not my favorite to win, Cirie is excellent at strategy--booting out Ozzy tonight with his immunity idol unplayed. Great move!

Jason's growing on me--he's naive but a good game player.

For my affection, no one can beat that muscley gravedigger James. He's so very purdy!

People please

Who first started saying "at the end of the day"?

Also "It is what it is"?

I'm sick of both of these sayings.

Is it Dr Suess-type philosophy?

What gives?

My daffodils are blooming








The fence, which is probably four inches on our side of the property line, plus today she was on her ass putting down those planks and marble rocks which encroaches even more.

Defend the Line!

I got up early this morning and washed clothes, cleaned the bathroom, fed the birds, cleaned the bird bath and read the paper. Now I’m enjoying my coffee.
Weird Spring: Today it’s colder than a witch’s tit, but my daffodils and hyacinths are blooming and look spectacular.

You may remember the nasty neighbor I told you about . . the Gladys Kravits nosy parker. The block gossip. The one who crawls around (literally) on her lawn, picking the crabgrass, paints her walk three times each summer. The one who hated us sight-unseen because the old lady we bought the property from wouldn’t sell it to Frieda’s mother. Anyway. She had a company put up a fence between own properties.

She’d hate it if she knew that she actually saved us money, because we had planned on doing the same thing in two years. I noticed she had the company put the “face side” in toward her own property, and the unfinished side towards us. Having researched fencing ordinances in anticipation of our future project, I knew this was against code. In our area, the face side of a fence goes out to the public side.
I went over to her and politely (yes, politely) asked her if the fencing company was finished with the project. She said, “Yes” in that icy Frieda-tone. I told her that the face side should be out facing our property and she said, “I told them I wanted the nice side facing my property.”
Me: I’m sure, but ordinance says that it should face out toward the public side.
Frieda: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Me: The fence company should know the local ordinances, but you’re going to have them come back and redo the fence.
Frieda: Like hell!

A few days later I called the Zoning and Building Inspector and asked them to go and take a look at the fence, and last week the fencing company was back and faced the fence on our side.

BP said that now the fence encroaches about four inches onto our property. He wants to call again and she’ll probably have to take the whole fence down and redo it completely.
I don’t really care that it’s over, but BP says, “We have to defend the line! When we go to sell, it’ll be an issue.” I don’t know how this will play out.

Rag's Luck

I just read old Rags' blog and it puts me in the damnable position of defending her—which I do not like at all.

Apparently someone posted in that Zag Wiki Shelf thing that Rag was in a cult, and since she uses the name Ragmuffin in her photography business (only God knows why) a potential client Googled her name . . up pops the Zag thing and now this would be client doesn’t want a cult member to photograph his whatever. Rag’s out $700 big ones.

I always knew that Wiki thing was a bad idea and a place that people would go to shit on others, that’s why I wasn’t a fan of it. Not to mention I wasn’t a fan of Zagglossus….I thought he was a pedantic blowhard. But I digress.

Anyway, if Rag wasn’t such a rag I’d consider sending her $700. That is, if I had an extra $700 bucks. Or I could sell one of the purses my sister’s given me over the years. But I won’t do that either.

But I’m sorry about her luck.

A creep goes out of his way to make derogatory and mean comments when a post merely laments the untimely passing of a kid. There was no cause for it whatsoever, and I'm hopeful that he'd change his tune if his kids had known a murder victim. But maybe not. Maybe he's just a creep, plain and simple.

Abigail

One of LP's grade school acquaintances was murdered last night. She and two friends (one is still in critical condition at a local hospital; the other was treated and released) were somewhere they weren't supposed to be, doing something they weren't supposed to be doing, and they suffered tragic consequences.
People in general do stupid things, and teenagers do stupid things a lot. You can't tell them anything, because they tend to know it all.
My heart goes out to her parents and friends.

Hello

Hi. I'm back. This week in Florida was boring as hell.
I'm glad to be back.
Free booze though. Still. I'd rather pay for my own booze
rather than sit through boring ass seminars.
That's all.

I bought a cardinal "windy wings" outdoor mobile and it's cute.
It's hanging outside on my porch alongside my windchimes.
Cardinal is the Indiana State Bird. Do you know your State Bird?
Clanky & Mems, does England have an official bird, like the
U.S. has the eagle?
In case there is doubt in anyone's mind, I have officially crossed
over to "old lady." Not quite on the par of the woman who has thirteen
house cats, but close. However, I do talk to the butterflies and birds who visit my birdfeeders.

It figures

My periods have been very spotty lately---hahahahah "spotty" get it???
And I'll go two or three months without having one. Well, I'm leaving for Florida on Sunday and guess what?

Yep.

Mostly for Spidey

Spidey Puddin,

I'll be on a business trip to Orlando next week so don't worry.
I'm not leaving until Sunday so I'll be around until then.

Love ya

Emma's Plan for Economic Renewal

It's Tuesday.

I'm going to campaign that America adopt a 30 hour work week. We'd probably be more productive and there's be less sick time.

A 30 hour work week.

A mandatory 10 weeks of vacation time per year.

A minimum of 10 dollars per hour.

Meetings cannot last more than 30 minutes or the caller of that meeting gets beheaded.

Free Panera coffee and bagels every morning.

If a person wants to come into work in flannel pajamas, I say go for it, however any man who comes to work dressed in khaki pants and a blue shirt gets beheaded.

I will be issued a Taser gun and and am free to use it on people that I dislike and who I do not want to hear from in the office. First offense, get Tasered, second offense, get beheaded.


That will do for starters.

Easter

We had a nice Easter. LP and I joined my sister , Mom, my sister, husband and their three kids for an Easter brunch in Indy. BP was on a business trip and didn't make it home for Easter.
This place had a groovy three-piece instrumental group who played while we ate.
Here are some of the brunch items:

eggs
omelets
potatoes
bacon/sausages
waffles
cereals
pastries


All kinds of lettuces and salad stuff



antipasto:
salami,
*spiced ham,
*olives,
*herbed mozzarella cheese balls,
*peppers,
*fennel & orange salad,
*grilled asparagus with feta,


scalloped potatoes
seasoned rice
grilled fresh mixed vegetables
*poppy seed fish with asian sauce
*jumbo shrimp cocktail
*pork loin with thyme dressing
roast beef


chocolate cake
three kinds of *cheesecake
fruit tart
chocolate fountain with marshmallows, graham crackers and crisp cookies to dip
coconut pie
coconut cake
carrot cake



The starred stuff is all the stuff I tried (oink) but it was so good!