Is She Cute or What?

Today was Parents' Day at the kid's dance class. A teacher comes to her daycare/school each Tuesday and they do ballet and tap. She was so excited that I could come, and the girls were all so cute! This is actually the second one they had, and though I attended the first, I forgot the camera last time. It is easy to see what a great time she is having:


They are having a recital in May and they gave us a "preview" of that. I'll have to get the video camera going for that one.

Nothing exciting last night - home, dinner, laundry, bed, the usual. Quiet today at work. Have not heard anything from the appliance guy about installing the dishwasher, so I got back on the Service Magic website to make another request. That is where I found this guy so I'm not that hopeful, since my request today only turned up 3, he being 1 of them. One of the others calls himself a "handyman", and he may well know how to install appliances, but I'd feel safer with someone who is a real appliance person. Maybe the other one will pan out, although they don't have a great record with the BBB; they have a couple of unresolved complaints. What to do, what to do.

That's about it. Boring day, kind of disinterested in blogging today I guess. GO VOTE.

Oh, and you HAVE to check out GIZOOGLE, it is hilarious. Go there and type in any website. Blogs are fun to use. Thanks to Stacey for that one!

Tip of the Day

Don't have Taco Bell for lunch and a Starbucks coffee for desert. Gotta go.

A butcher, a baker(?), a procrastinator

Let's start with a Monday morning laugh. You have to go and read this entry by Miss Zoot, it is hilarous.

Something else hilarious (to me anyway) - I entered an "Oscars pool" at work, where you pick who you think will win in each of 24 categories. I tied for 3rd place with 17 correct. Which is pretty awesome and funny, considering I have not seen a single one of any of those movies. Not one. In fact, I can't remember the last movie I saw in a theater. I do remember who I saw it with, which would put the last one some time in early 2002. Sad, I know. In fact, it doesn't seem as though it could really have been 4 years since I have gone to a movie, but I do believe it has been.

And by the way... I didn't know when I made that previous entry about the movie Crash with James Spader that there was a new movie with the same name. I did remark, if you recall, that the movie was 10 years old, so I cannot be held responsible for any confusion that may have caused to any of the millions of readers of my blog.

I took Abby to the groomer this weekend. She is scalped. Butchered, if you will. In fact I have never seen her look as she does now. I didn't ask them to scalp her either, and so it wasn't a good surprise. (I intended to take a picture to post but I will have to do that tomorrow.) It kind of reminded me of the first time she got groomed. It was when Jen and I were roommates (more years ago than I care to count; Abby was probably 1 so that gives you some idea how long ago) and she took Abby to the groomer to surprise me. I was surprised all right. She did call me at work to "warn me" before I came home, but I still wasn't quite prepared for what I saw. That really had everything to do with that it was the first time she had been groomed and not that it was horrible or anything, though. It really was a thoughtful thing for her to do, especially since now every time I take Abby to the groomer it seems to get more and more expensive and it didn't start out cheap. I could buy a great pair of clippers for half what a grooming costs and scalp her like she is now myself for free from now on.

Some time I'll have to expand on when Jen and I were roommates. The longest 6 months of both of our lives, I think. Great friends, terrible roommates. It's a wonder we and our friendship survived it. Oh, and then when we were moving out I let my then teenage brother have a party there. Let's just say it started Friday night and I was taking the last of the party goers home on Sunday night. Wheeeee. Remember Gang Green? (only 2 people who read my blog will get that)

Anyway. As people who know me well may have guessed - I did not make it to the cake decorating class yesterday. It wasn't my fault, though. I was perfectly ready, willing and able to go. However... Jen called and said she didn't feel like going because she had... well let's just say an upset stomach (which is not the way she phrased it to me but we don't really need to go there). We had decided to start the class next month, but then she e-mailed me this morning to say that she found out we didn't really miss much, just how to make a cake and icing (which, in a cake decorating class, would seem to me the most important part, but hey, what do I know?) and we should feel free to continue in this class this week.

You should SEE the list of things were are supposed to bring to class this Sunday. Ok, I'll show you. I have actually edited it down a bit:

Apron (if you want) (because I wouldn't want to muck up my bowling clothes with frosting goop)
Damp cloth or sponge (or 2, or 10)
Scissors (is this what they're cutting cakes with now?)
Toothpicks (in case you get some of that stiff frosting stuck in your teeth?)
Plastic bags to take home dirty things used in class
Waxed paper (for your rainbow transfer) (my what?)
Waxed paper squares (about 6 for practice roses) (something tells me I'm gonna need more than 6 practices)
PRACTICE FROSTING (for use with Practice Boards) (practice whats?)
½ cup THIN consistency with ¼ teaspoon piping gel added to practice writing (you can color this to use for the writing on your cake after we’re finished practicing) (WTF is piping gel?)
1 cup MEDIUM consistency to practice borders (you can use the white that we will need for the clouds and border on your cake)
½ cup STIFF consistency to practice roses (this can be colored and used for your final cake for Lesson 4)
All the items in your Course 1 Kit
Parchment triangles, featherweight bags or disposable bags
Icing Colors
Piping gel (again, WTF is piping gel?)
8” round layer cake (any flavor) iced with light blue THIN consistency Class Buttercream Icing – you can put the cake on a plate, a cake circle, or right on the turntable. (what flavor goes with light blue frosting?)

I am pretty sure I have never seen canned frosting for sale in varying consistencies, so I am going to have to follow the instructions for making it. Which is scary, very very scary.

Somehow I doubt I could get away with just bringing those tubes of colored gel-stuff-that-isn't-frosting that you can buy to write on cakes with. Oh wait. Maybe that is piping gel.

I can see it now. I'll probably be heading to the grocery store at 2:00 on Sunday...

Bear in mind, class begins at 4:00. How long does it take to bake a cake mix?

Happy Weekend (for lack of a better title)

Well I almost batted 1000. But .500 again isn't bad.

American Idol Update: Heather and Brenna, David and Jose got the boot. I had mentioned all of those but ultimately Brenna and David weren't the ones I figured would go this week. Ah, well, maybe next week. This time I wisely waited until the show had been on for 30 minutes to start watching so I could forward through all the parts I didn't want to hear.

I still don't have an installed, working dishwasher or a new vent hood. Apparently the guy came early and somehow I missed him while I was in the garage doing laundry or out back with the dogs or something. I tried to call him last night at just past the time window he had given me, spoke to him briefly, but got cut off and then got voice mail. This morning he told me he had gotten there early and saw my car but there was no answer. He said he will be able to come back some time this weekend but he will have to get back with me as to when. ARGH!!!!

Have a couple of plans for the weekend. Taking the kid to bowl tonight for her league, then will probably go home and do some laundry and go to bed early - wheeeee, my exciting Friday nights now. Working all day at the liquor store tomorrow as always. Sunday I have plans to overhaul the kid's room with some new shelves and basically going through all of her toys and organizing everything, etc.

Then at 4:00 Sunday I am taking a cake decorating class with Jen. Anyone who knows me must surely be gasping at that. I can't remember the last time I even baked anything like, real. I bought my new oven last March because my old one was, well, old, and about 25 degrees off temperature-wise, and I wanted to bake a low-carb cheesecake, which requires precise oven temperature. I still haven't done it. In fact, probably the only thing that new oven has been used for in the last almost year is frozen pizza. Maybe a Stouffer's lasagna. Anyway. Cake decorating. Sounds kind of fun and it would be something fun to do with the kid. It'd be awesome to be able to make her (and others) really cool birthday cakes, too. Should be interesting. I'm generally not the creative, imaginative type, but maybe I can be taught cake decorating. It's 4 Sundays, 2 hours each day.

Why doesn't Target carry velcro? I went at lunch to get some because the little suction cup that goes on the windshield that holds the mount for my Sirius came off the first day the temp got over 75, telling me it simply isn't going to hold in this Texas heat (yes, in March; can't wait to see what it does in, say, August if it's this hot now), so I decided I could velcro it to the dash. A fine idea, I think - if I could find some freaking velcro. The cashier said "Go to Big Lots." Lady, if I wanted to go to Big Lots, I'd be at Big Lots, not here at Target, and besides, I've spent so long looking for velcro that I now have 10 minutes to get food at crappy Whataburger and drive back to work. Fortunately it's quiet today, all of my attorneys are out, so no one noticed I was a little late. Uh oh. I left the Reese's Easter eggs in the car. I'd better go get them before they melt.

You may have noticed I haven't mentioned Atkins this week and now I have apparently purchased candy. I should probably quit mentioning Atkins until I've actually started it.

Which will be right around the time I bake that low-carb cheesecake.

Oh, I almost forgot

American Idol prediction: I think we'll be saying goodbye to Melissa, Heather, Kevin and Jose tonight. I would say David, but I think lots of teenage girls will vote for him. I don't think Sinatra songs will carry him much past this week, though. That Brenna chick seriously needs to go, but I'm not sure this will be the week.

I find that I don't think any of the girls are particularly spectacular, while there are several of the guys I am rooting for. I think the talent overall is not as good as it was last year.

Time will tell.

If I gave this a descriptive title, you wouldn't read it

Hmmmph. The appliance guy called yesterday afternoon to reschedule because his helper's kid was sick and he needs 2 people to install the vent hood. Which is fine, he is coming today between 6 and 7 so I wouldn't have had to take off work early again or anything. Except that the Truly Nolen guy didn't show up last night. I called them this morning and the lady said she tried to call my cell phone yesterday to say he wouldn't make it and reschedule - but there were no missed calls or voice mails. She said voice mail never picked up. So now it is today at 5:00, which means I'll have to take off early again.

That's all pretty boring, what else do I have... let's see... oh. OH. Ugh. You'll love this. Not. It's kind of disgusting. Last night once I finally conceded that Truly Nolen wasn't coming, I asked the kid to let the dogs in. She opened the door and they all came bounding inside, except for Abby. She called and called, and finally I went and called, nothing. She hasn't been getting out since I fixed that one spot in the fence, but I went out front to check anyway, nothing. Back out to the back, called again, and finally spotted her in a corner of the yard, in her "taking a shit" stance.

Abby doesn't like it when you watch her going to the bathroom. I mean, not that I intentionally want or try to do so, but if she catches you looking her way while she's going, she'll give you this pained expression and if you keep looking, she'll stop and move somewhere else. The same dog who will shamelessly gobble cat poop is modest about shitting in the yard, go figure.

Anyway. I spotted her in her stance, so naturally I looked away, and waited. And waited. And waited. Ultimately it became clear that was some sort of problem.

She was having difficulty because... well, how do I describe this? She had globs of shit stuck all over her butt and it was "in the way" and she couldn't push any more out.

I told you this was disgusting.

Additionally she had managed to walk through the muddiest part of the yard and her feet were completely caked with mud.

Here's where the fun begins. She was a little distressed, so I petted her and tried to calm her, and told her I would be right back (yes, I talk to my dogs, all the time, what about it???). I went in and started running a bath. Then I tried to carry her into the bathroom without any part of her touching me, which of course was impossible. The minute her feet hit the water, it turned brown with mud. I had to work the clumps of mud out of her paws and from under belly.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to grab some of those disposable latex gloves I keep around for really disgusting jobs like, oh, say, disposing of rats, and THIS. If you know anything about bathing a dog, you know that you had better have everything you need when you put the dog in the tub because there's no going off and leaving it and expecting it not to jump out of the tub and streak across the house. Sooooo.....

I'm not even going to type it out loud but you get the idea. Fortunately I have a shower-sprayer thingy which helped tremendously. But then... I had pulled the plug because the tub was getting too full and the water was so dirty, and big balls of poop clogged the drain up so the water wasn't draining at all. (gag gag) I put the sprayer on the single powerful stream, turned the water on full hot, and had to kind of melt them down the drain. I wasn't about to dig them out barehanded as I probably should have done. I'm off to Target at lunch for some Liquid Plummer, just in case. Hopefully it comes in scented.

So Abby is finally clean, and I am soaking wet and not smelling so nice myself. I wrapped her in a towel, changed clothes, and went and sat with her on the couch. She was shaking like a leaf. I didn't know if there was something wrong and she needed to go to the vet or if it was a "one time freaky thing" and she was shivering from being wet. Eventually she warmed up and when I got up for something, she jumped down and got a drink of water. She seemed fine. Until I caught her in the shit stance, in the house. Too late. A little watery turd came out, that was it. Ok, not so bad. Cleaned it up, sat back down on the couch, she jumped up. As she was turning around in her circle to settle down, I heard a little watery fart and then a tiny blob plopped out onto the couch. Ewwww. Fortunately I have leather couches so it was easy to clean. I took her outside, nothing else happened, and she's seemed fine ever since.

Aren't you so glad I told that story? Welcome to my life. Woo freakin' hoo. The most important thing though is that Abby is ok. I guess you can indeed endure anything for your kids.

E-mail, you suck

Sometimes I really hate e-mail. You can write something with one intention or tone in mind, and someone else reads it entirely differently and gets offended or their feelings hurt.

Jen, I do NOT think you are fat. End of discussion. (And by the way, I wasn't the one who started the discussion about fat, either)

How many times a day do you think the expression "I do NOT think you are fat" is uttered, 99.5% of the time by the male species?

Wishywashystuff

American Idol update: I have no idea which of the girls should be voted off, because I haven't watched last night's episode yet. So tonight I'll be watching last night's and tonight's episodes. It must have been some show last night, and the consensus I get from looking online is that Brenna should go because of her bad attitude. Should be interesting. I'm digging that new game show, Deal or No Deal. I watched a bit of it before leaving to get the dishwasher, and set the TiVo for it.

Truly Nolan is coming this afternoon, and I'm getting my new dishwasher and vent hood intalled today. Big fun. It will be nice once all of that is done though.

Oh look, another quiz. This one sure is leaving a lot of space. I wish I knew more about editing HTML. Of course, knowing anything would be knowing more... This quiz is "Which Peanuts Character Are You?" Gee, I always wondered that.

Schroeder Wishy-Washy: 68%, Mental: 62%, Physical: 46%

A prodigy from his very first appearance, Schroeder idolises Beethoven and spends most of his free time at the keyboard of his piano. He plays backstop for Charlie Brown's baseball team, but his heart belongs to classical music. The best way to get rid of annoying distractions is to yank the piano out from under them.

Link: The Peanuts Character Test written by timberlineridge on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Wishy-Washy: 68%? Though perhaps I should be most concerned about the 62% mental... Hmmmmmmmm...