WTF Tuesday

I went to the doctor yesterday and it seems I won't be keeling over dead anytime soon.
Yah me!
I'll be around to vex everyone for a good long time.  Though I am still short of breath.
I knew you were all worried...... ;-)

I am feeling all out of sorts this summer.
Not just in a physical way but in a cosmic, not-right-with-the-universe way.

Last summer I had lots to keep me busy......the July Stockpile Sale.......the August Stockpile Sale......a nice garden to tend......having Kid #2 graduate from high school and then packing off Kid #2 to college for the 1st time.....getting ready to hold a big Toy Sale(that didn't happen in the end, but I spent time working on it anyway).

This Summer?
No Stockpile Sales.
Kid #2 is back home and won't be living at school in the Fall.
The garden is dinky this year and due to the drought, not much action there.

I don't know.
I am just not feeling much of anything to blog about this Summer.
Ok, so I do blog but obviously calling my online friends "assholes" and posting long reads about the Civil War Draft Riots of 1863 aren't very popular.

Perhaps I should go back to talking about hoarding...or better yet cat hoarding!
Yes, since I started checking on my blog "keyword" searches, cat hoarding has been a phrase that has led many MANY people to my blog's front door.
I don't even like cats.....

So to keep things light and frothy today, I am going to show you some photos.

First off, I finally got around to making PICKLES!!!

Of course, everyone wanted me to make them but when I finally did, no one is eating them now but me!
But that's ok since I "heart" these pickles....nom nom nom.....

And here is the comedy duo I spend most days with....

Cherry the beagle and Penny the chihuahua.....the Abbott and Costello of the dog world!

Cherry loves to spend her days laying on her back.
Besides just hanging around upside down, the 2 dogs have a "Who's on First!?" routine worked out that they perform every day, usually beginning at 2:30pm....sometimes they start earlier than that, because they don't synchronize their watches evidently.

The "show" goes like this.....
Cherry will roll onto her back, usually this happens in the middle of the den or kitchen floor.  If Penny is not present, Cherry will whine and make quiet "ruffing" noises to get her attention.  Penny is mostly deaf though, but Penny has ADHD and walks around all. day. long., so she will "find" Cherry in "position" within minutes.

Once Penny is on "stage" with Cherry the show begins.
Cherry begins her "dance".  She slowly twist and turns on her back and moans.  Not an "I'm in pain moan".....Imagine a human porn film but with a dog playing the part.  Yah, it's kinda like that.
I know, that sounds weird but it's the only thing that is close to what it sounds like.

Penny stands over Cherry, constantly moving though, like a slow motion dance, and starts barking.
It's that high pitched "nail through your skull" bark that Chihuahuas do.
And they dance, moan and bark.....and bark.....and bark......
They would do this for hours I think, if I didn't take a yardstick to them, and make them stop after 20 minutes or until my head and nerves explode.

They stop but as soon as I leave the room or go back to trying to ignore them, they go right back to performing.....writhing on the floor, moaning, the tip tip of chihuahua toenails prancing in place and then the yipping that makes the paint want to peel right off the walls.

And this goes on right up until 4pm, which is their dinner time, or I break down sooner and feed them.
It's a wonder I have a sane thought left in my head some days!

And here is a photo an old friend sent me recently.  He actually sent this photo to me a few years ago but my computer crashed and I hadn't saved this photo elsewhere.  He recently sent it again.
This friend and I met the Summer of 1975.
I'll not share anything else about him, except to say that he once dressed up as Marilyn Monroe for a Halloween party and you'd have been hard pressed to tell him apart from the real Marilyn.....of course if she wasn't dead and all.
But I digress....

We were both interns in a Summer Theater Workshop at a local Dinner Theater.
I had joined this program because a friend of mine, whom I had attended 8th grade with had.
We remained friends even though I attending the Parochial high school and she went to her local public one. 

Anyway, I kept in touch with this other friend I met at the theater(though he also went to a different high school from me).  We've reconnected off an on over the years since then. 
I went to his house for a visit the following Fall.
This was Oct. of 1976.
I was a Senior in high school.
Please forgive the Catholic school uniform plaid pleated skirt.
This is Sluggy in all her glory at 17.
Fashion victim of the '70's.

So how is YOUR summer going?
Is it me or are the planets spinning out of orbit this year?




Sluggy-who if given the chance for a teenage redo, would have done so many things differently!

Wanna Trade?

So, would you like to trade days with me?
Let me fill you in on what days are like here.
Take my Thursday for instance.....

I got up after being serenaded for 2 HOURS straight by the dog with the largest case of separation anxiety known to man or beast.  This dog will howl non-stop if someone is not physically in the same room with him.  I can be in the dining room with the gate across(as the dogs are NOT allowed in there)with this dog not 2 feet away from me in the kitchen and he's STARING a whole through my head.  But because that gate is there, he will whine and whimper and then start the howling hysterics because he can't GET TO ME!
I am NOT an early riser, therefore once the kids and DH are out the door I am not downstairs with the hounds yet, so I get sung to every morning.  It is ANNOYING as hell but after so many years, I can block it out and sleep right through it.

So I'm up and dragging around.  Check the email, write a blog post to put up later in the day and then I do any eBay emailing/listing/photoing/packing/shipping I need to do.  Next is checking for deals on other deal blogs and check out what my favorite bloggy friends are up to.

I had a 1st class international package to mail yesterday so I was FORCED to go to the PO.  I like my PO, really I do.  It's a teeny tiny town and I am on a first name basis with the clerk Pete.  Pete is great and lifts my spirits when I get to chat with him.  I have been known to bring him a cup of Dunkin' Donuts java on occasion....hey, you want good service it helps to grease the wheels. ;-)
We use to have 2 clerks but Jim retired and the PO is hemorrhaging money so they are NOT replacing Jim.
Poor Pete....
So anyway I go in with my package and get in line.  Some guy gets in line behind me a bit afterwards.  Suddenly this guy is screaming into my ear!  Well, HE thought he was screaming into his phone, but HE was so close and within my 'personal space zone' and at the right height that his shouting went right past his phone and into my left ear.
"Yes, this is XXXX  returning your call. I can be reached at XXXX.  Please call me back when you get this message."
It's a small room at our PO and this asshole could have waited until he got back into his car that leave that message, dontcha think?
Geez.....
So I got to turn around and give him the look while I waited for the ringing in my ear to subside.
The woman in front of me in line(an older woman with a dour look on her face)shot a look back at old "Can you hear me now? Guy" too.  Then she turned around, and also invaded my personal space zone, and tugged on his arm.  I thought for a minute old granny was going to give him "what for" but she then said, "Aren't you Aunt XXX's son?....Don't you know my mother XXX?"
Turns out these 2 folks are some distant cousins or something.  I'm sorry I can't provide you with the play by play genealogy but I didn't take notes as they went on and on and on! figuring out just how they were related.  Seems their mothers were sisters tho from what I could tell as they shouted back and forth over me.  Then when they got to granny's mother I got to hear all about her 90 yr old mother's health issues....from the catheter to the ostomy bag to the other non-essential organ removable surgeries to needing skilled nursing care 24/7 and she was now living with granny lady and she has to have one of those monitor things on her when she leaves the house in case something happens to mom when she steps out to run errands.  And then we got to hear about how she retired finally from her job and then all these older relatives started getting sick and she is worn out from caring for them all.  Geez lady, can't you say NO to anybody??
It seemed like a year and a day but granny finally got her turn and left and I got my package mailed.

So I then get to have the highlight of my day.....going to the local grocery store and getting free dog food with my coupons!  I was in and out in 10 minutes.  Now why couldn't that part of my day take longer instead?

I come home and deal with putting the dogs out to do their 'business' and go pack some more packages to mail tomorrow.
As I'm rocking out to some music turned up VERY loudly I hear dogs barking in the distance.  That's weird I think because they sound like OUR dogs but our dogs are in the den sleeping.
Nope....
The wind had blown the backdoor open and all 3 dogs had make a break for it.  Cherry our female beagle(our runner-who loves being outside and will take EVERY opportunity you give her to runaway)was standing on the deck barking at the now totally out of sight other two dogs.    So I had 2 loose dogs to NOT chase....no, I don't run after dogs anymore.
Peanut, our bagel(bassett/beagle mix)is all about food.  He use to run like a beagle but now at his age he likes napping and eating more(kind of like me).  I took a bog of dog biscuits outside and walked around the yard shaking it and calling his name.  About 20 mins. later he appeared in the next door neighbor's yard racing around like a maniac.  He saw me and heard "Cookies" and he came running.  Of course, we have a small netting fence between the yards(so that their black lab doesn't come over here and poop when they let him loose in their yard), so Peanut ran to the fence and then along it up to the front yard where he could get around it.
But then it didn't appear back in the backyard.  So I walked to the front door and he was standing and barking at the closed front door......he is not the brightest crayon in the dog box, is he?

The chihuahua was still MIA.  She will snarl and bark and stand at the edge of the deck if she sees someone or something move but she rarely leaves the deck and attacks anything because she is all bark.  But I guess Peanut's leaving gave her the courage to bolt.
I got a phone call a bit later from #2 son's friend's adult brother that he had her in his yard up the street so I sent #2 son up there to retrieve her(she is HIS dog anyway)when he got off the bus from school.

So my afternoon was full of fun and mayhem.

Then the other highlight of my day was attending the school's band and chorus concert.

#2 son is in both the middle school and high school bands(tho he's in middle school because he is more advanced and was in the high school marching band, he gets to be in both this year) and daughter is in the Chorus.  It was nice to see them both perform but every time we go to one of these I think I am going to have a stroke!
Why?
Because of the rudeness and total lack of consideration among the parents in the audience.
If their kid is performing they are standing in the aisles or climbing over the seats with some bigass camera trying to get the perfect shot of  "their precious Tiffany".  They are blocking the view of everyone around them who is trying to WATCH the performance too.  I watched one guy last night prop himself up on 2 seats so he was almost as tall as if he had stood up, blocked the sightlines for about 5 people behind him for an entire set of numbers.  He never WATCHED the show that whole time his kid was performing.  He had his face in his viewfinder clicking on shots and then reviewing them to see if it was a shot worth saving.
And if their kids are NOT performing at the moment the parents talk incessantly while other kids are performing.  At the winter performance DH actually turned around and laid someone out for this kind of rudeness....not that it helped.
The other thing is people will get up and leave when their kid is done performing so the kids who go last have barely anyone left in the audience.
And people who get up and walk around DURING a piece....for gosh sakes, can't you hold still and do your moving BETWEEN performances??!
And then there are the parents who come in late. ARGH!  If you can't bother to show up on time(they do post the time it starts you know!), then have the courtesy to stand in the back(and NOT talk!)and wait until a piece is over and THEN walk down the aisle and find a seat in the 3rd row.
Finally, cell phones.....hello?!?!
Can you untether yourself from that piece of plastic for 1 hour people?  And if you can't please turn off the ringer or buzzer or whatever you have it set on.

Finally it was home to answer more eBay moron questions like......

*How much to ship this to Austria if you take it out of the box.  "Well, let's see....if I take it out of the box to throw it into a padded envie to verify the shipping for you, it will no longer be new and sealed in the box and if you end up not buying it after all that, I'll be left with something I can get even LESS money for than when it WAS new and sealed in the box."

*Is this the largest Iron Giant......do you know if they made a bigger one?  This is the type of ? I call the "fishing expedition".  They are not interested in buying your item....they either have one to sell to or they need this information for some other reason and figure they will bother you for the info rather than go look it up for themselves.

*I am interested in buying your xxxx but will you take $xx instead of $xxx?  "Dear buyer, Do I look like a flea market?"

*Will you take $xx for your item XXXX. "Sorry but that price is more than a 30% discount on the listing price.  If I wanted to give it away(after eBay and Paypal fees), I would just give it to charity now."

*I also have gotten 4 QTS emails so far from one guy about one item I have listed.  He is truly pestering me with every  possible question he can come up with about this item and some of it I can't answer since I am not omniscient.  I do think he will eventually buy the item but he is going to make me jump through all the hoops and spend an inordinate amount of time and energy on this sale.....sigh.....

And to top this day off, I found out on Thursday that we are going to have some "Relative Problems".  Sorry but I can't go into this whole other area of my life but I think there are some family members who actually read this blog sometimes so I can't dish about any of the juicy hilarity that would be our families.
It's killing me but I can't....lol

Between all this I had to make dinner and make sure laundry was done so the kids had performance clothing to wear(I even had to IRON A SHIRT...ack!).

So that was my day yesterday in a nutshell.
Now do you wanna trade??

Sluggy

I'm leaving home for the day!

It's at times like this that I wish I had a job away from the house!
Our 1980's built home still has it's original shingled roof.
After today, that will change.

We are biting the bullet and spending our tax refund(which is just us giving the government a year long loan anyway, isn't it?)on replacing our roof.  It needs it badly.

The contractor said yesterday in our phone conversation that the roofers would be here around 7:30am but I didn't have to be up or anything if I sleep later than that time.
I reminded him that I have 3 dogs(2 beagles-the baying machines, and a psychotic people-hating chihuahua), so if the workers were here, I'd be awake & so would the entire neighborhood!lolol

It's been about 1 hour since they arrived and it's going to be a race to see who--either the Chihuahua or I--will be having a nervous breakdown first.

So in order not to have to listen to constant barking for the next 7 hours, I'm getting into my car, stopping at McDonald's for a chicken biscuit and going to my storage unit.  I'll sit there in the relative peace & quiet of traffic noise as cars wiz by on the highway, eat my breakfast and go through boxes of stuff in my storage.  Maybe I'll count my stash of toilet paper/facial tissues/napkins while I'm at it so I can hold a "Guess Sluggy's  Stockpile" Giveaway Contest on the blog.
Now THAT would be fun, right?

When I get tired or bored with that, I'll wander over to the Library and pick-up the book that's on hold for me and go into the stacks somewhere and start reading it.

Have fun online today without me.
I'm out of here before my sanity and hearing is shot!

Sluggy