Teen Brain

You would think that after 2 older kids I'd be use to dealing with the dreaded teen brain syndrome.

You know what I mean, right?
Teens have so many hormones and things swirling around in their noggins that it makes listening, thinking and following directions very difficult, if not impossible.

I have told #2 Son at least 4 times now this week about a small chore I want him to do.
I left it up to him when to attempt this job and here it is Saturday morning and it's still undone.

On this point, we had a "go 'round" about the chore in question on Wednesday.
He came downstairs and I once again reminded him(reminder #2 or 3, I don't recall)about doing said chore and doing it on that day, since he seemed not to have any mojo to get it done asap on his own.

He looked at me like I was an alien(shut up....I see you thinking something about me out there!lol)and said that I hadn't EVER in my life said anything before today about doing this chore.
Really??!

Do I need to start filming video of me telling him so I can play it back when he denies I ever told him something or other?

He continued to deny I ever told him to do this chore.
I know the child is suffering from an advanced case of teen brain and I explained to him what I meant.

Again, he looked at me like I had hot lava oozing out of a vent in my neck.
He shook his head in a way that says, "Poor mom, she's lost her mind." and left the room.

A bit later, as if to punctuate the point I was making, #2 Son returned downstairs to the kitchen to fix himself something to eat.
He took the second little French bread pizza out of the freezer(from the box of Stouffer's I got him the other day)and got busy in there heating it up.

I didn't pay attention to him really and got absorbed into whatever I was doing online.
About half an hour later I looked up from the computer as my nose was smelling something burning.
I yelled up to him and he flew down the stairs to the kitchen and started banged around all disgusted.
I looked up and he had a pizza pan in his hand with this on it.....

That slightly incinerated item was a pizza at one time.
It actually looks better in the photo than it did in real life.....
Ever the optimist(ha!)and trying to save the situation, I told him that charcoal is good for your teeth.

I could have sworn I saw daggers protruding from his eyeballs toward me at that moment.
;-)

Teen stood there clueless about how this had happened.....the pizza burning.
He said he had followed the directions on the box.

So I dug the box outta the trash and started reading them.
And it became apparent that what he did was combine 2 sets of directions-one for cooking it with a microwave and one for cooking it in a traditional oven.

One instruction said to bake at 350 for 30 minutes in a regular oven.

The other instruction said to bake for 2 minutes in a microwave and then place in a preheated 475 degree regular oven for 5 mintues.

So what does the teen brain afflicted youth do?
He preheated the regular oven to 475 degrees and baked it for 30 minutes.

*Thud*

And there you have it folks.
The argument that I HAVE told him about that chore I wanted done multiple times and he just hasn't processed the information correctly in his teen brain.

The old mom doesn't have Alzheimer's yet......
It's him and NOT me.
And hopefully I get this kid grown and out of the house before I do sink into the Alzheimer soup.

Sluggy



 

Perfecting My Wave

When I get silly I like to refer to myself in the third person when conversing.
You know......like when I disapprove of something and am talking to someone, I'll say, "We are not amused".

That sort of thing.
I'm just that silly.

Well come to find out, wanting to talk in the third person might be imbedded somewhere deep in my dna.

A few months ago I traced, via paper trail,(sources range from excellent to dubious though), my maternal genealogy back to European royalty.
Most of the connections are NOT sourced by me but taken from other trees of people I appear to be related to.

That gentleman in Erie, PA who I found I am related to via a maternal Great Grandfather's line(my mother's mother's father's line)and corresponded with about 5 years ago, is part of the Vassar/Vasser family of VA.  This line stretches back to the first immigrant to the New World, John Vasser who arrived at Jamestown in 1635.  Old John V. happens to be one of my 9th Great Grandfathers.
That's all well documented and many ancestors are right proud of that lineage.

But I turned my attention to John Vasser's wife awhile ago, Elizabeth Dowe(other spelling variations are Dow and Dew).
She also came to VA in 1635.
Her parents were Christopher Dowe and Elizabeth Franklin from England.
I traced Elizabeth's maternal line back 3 generations to an Ann Hare.
She was the daughter of Thomas Popy Hare.
I traced Thomas' paternal line back 4 more generations to a John Hare.
He married Jane or Joan de Neville, who was the daughter of Ralph de Neville and Joan de Beaufort, the Countess of Westmorland.
Joan de Beaufort was the daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duck of Lancaster, of the Plantagenet house of England.
Yes, my ancestor was one of the bastard children of John of Gaunt and his mistress Kathryn Swynford(who he eventually married).
This line leads me back through the Plantagenet rulers of England all the way back to William the Conqueror(born 1024), who appears to be one of my 29th Great Grandfathers.
So even that line of my ancestry leads back to France.
I tell you I am finding all kinds of ancestors going back to France once I started rooting around deep enough in my tree branches.

My direct ancestor rulers are William(the Man), Henry I, Henry II, John I, Henry III, Edward I II and III,  and then I drop off into the minor nobility after John of Gaunt and upper classes of English society, before hopping a boat to America.
But being descended from the Plantagenet line means I am remotely related to all the rulers of England down through Liz II.
Do you think I can use my "connection" to the House of Windsor to get a peek "up close and personal" of the new royal baby? 8-)

Whoop dee doo I hear you say about all those stuffy royalty folks......
Yah, that's sort of my reaction as well.

But it still doesn't keep me from enjoying this cute little song from a BBC series called "Horrible Histories" that I found episodes for on You Tube.

Can't we all use a silly little tune to remember the Rulers of England by? lolz
Enjoy!





 Sluggy
H.N.S.R.M (Her Not So Royal Majesty)

Blathering On A Blah Day

Just lots of dull going on today here at Chez Sluggy.
My.....since I AM the Queen of Boring anyway, how boring is a dull day for me?

Pretty darn boring I'd say.

Just the usual suspects today......washing dishes, cooking, a little vacuuming, waiting on dogs hand and foot.....or would that be paw and hoof?.....some blog reading/writing, email answering and bubble land playing.
Oh yes, and writing a big check to the Daughter for her rent, health insurance and books the upcoming semester of college.
Writing big checks are no fun.
Receiving big checks on the other hand, are lots of fun. 8-)  But there is none of that going on here today, though the Hubs paycheck hits the bank account later today....just in time for me to pay the last of the July bills.
Oh joy.....yes, the excitement never ends around here.

Tonight is Project Runway viewing.  I hope Timothy(Mr. "I Don't Use Sewing Machines Because They Use Electricity" Faux Environmentalist)gets the axe tonight.  Such a phony.....
But then again it would be fun to have him around making trouble and giving the other Designers reasons to roll their eyes.

The "big" project I am currently working on is going through my fabric stash.  I am separating out what I am keeping to use and the rest is getting photographed, measured and put into my Etsy store later this Summer.

I'll post about this project later next month.

As for bringing in some extra cash, I put about 10 books up on Amazon last week and actually sold 2 already.
Go me!

The weather the past 2 days has been WONDERFUL!  It's been cooler & less humid and I haven't had to run the a/c at all.
And last night it was downright chilly.  Somewhere in the 50's and I needed a blanket on the bed.

And my post last week about Germany's fascination with me and David Hasselhoff?  Well it looks like I jinxed my stats with it, because shortly afterwards that 1 person in Germany who kept visiting my blog daily about 20,000 times seems to have stopped visiting here.
Yes, my audience numbers have fallen dramatically and audience geographical locations percentages are now normal-ish.
It was fun while it lasted......

I hope you feel better soon Linda.
And I was just thinking about missing "Udy with a J" and Jane's blogs.  Jane is probably off in the wilds of P.E.I. right about now, enjoying her summer with Michael.  I know she doesn't have internet service out there at her cottage so if you are in P.E.I. tell Jane I said "hi".


Ok, off to do other things now.

Sluggy
 

The View Outside & A Frugal Cool Treat

We had a busy weekend here at Chez Sluggy.

On Sunday we tackled "the jungle".
That's how we refer to the west side of the house.
There is a tree over there next to the house, along with 4 overgrown shrubs.
I don't think we did any yard work over on that side of the house the last couple of years, except for mowing the grass that's over there.

It's a nice shady spot, due to the assorted trees shielding that area from the road, which runs along it(we live on a corner lot).  I had plans to put a nice garden bench over there and have a shady cool spot to sit out in the yard.
But before I get the bench, we needed to tackle "the jungle" that had grown up over there next to the house.

And here is how the side of the house looked after 5 hours of hacking and chopping and sawing.....

There is still work to be done on the left side of the photo.  There are "suckers" from the tree that need digging up and those 2 shrubs need trimming back.

We decided to chop down one of the shrubs....the one closest to the front of the house.  It had just grown so tall and pruning it back just made it look nastier and smaller. lol  I have never liked that bush.
So we chopped it up and all that needs to be done is to dig the roots up.....

When Hubs was starting to take the chainsaw to all the branches of it, I said it was too bad we didn't have a redneck with a pick-up truck and a big chain handy to make quick work of that shrub.
We just don't have the right friends sometimes......

And after we got most of the branches and all the debris taken out of there, I looked up and noticed that there are decorative shutters on that bedroom window......

I hadn't seen that window, let alone those shutters in 6 or more years!
That little purple red tree was about 7 feet tall when we moved into this house.  It hadn't even reached the bottom of that 2nd floor window yet.
In the Fall, when we take that window a/c out of the window, we'll trim more from that tree so it isn't brushing against the house.
Who the heck plants a tree that grows this tall or taller right next to a house and a window too boot?! lol

Now I like shrubs and things near the base of your house(but not too near).  But I like shrubs that are A-full and nice looking when they grow and B-don't traditionally grow too large/tall for the space.
Whomever planted the stuff on this side of the house hadn't a CLUE about how big these things get when full grown.

I told Hubs I would like to make a flower bed over here bordering the house.  Put up a nice little border and fill the thing with mulch or stones.  I'll probably angle it out into a semicircular affair so I can include the base of that tree in it.  I'll probably finish digging up the 3 shrubberies left and replace them with miniature type shrubs and some partial shade perennials.
Maybe some Lily of the Valley and Hostas?

Hostas to replace the ones Hubs dug up in the side flower bed.
My stonewalled side flower bed with the humungous Rhododendron in it.....

Behind that bush were 3 lovely Hostas in that bed.  I had #2 Son weed that bed back there(and to the right of the Rhodo) and then lay down landscaping fabric with red bark mulch over it.
Hubs wanting to "help" went over and dug up my Hostas in tiny pieces and threw them out.....thinking that #2 Son hadn't finished weeding the bed and that those were weeds.
Ugh.
I am still giving him grief over that. 8-((

But I digress.....

Anyway, we had a HUGE brush pile of branches after all the cutting and hacking was finished for the day.  A pile much too big to add to the already large brush pile heaped over behind the shed in the backyard.
I told Hubs not to put this new pile of brush on the old pile, as the old stuff was dry and about ready to burn in the fire pit Daughter made in the backyard.
So what to do with all that fresh brush.......

Genius solution was found!

Fill up the dog run which we don't use anymore! lol

As we burn the old pile of brush, we can move the new stuff over behind the shed to finish drying out.

While I was out helping with the shrub/tree hacking and brush removal and gathering up dead sticks for kindling in the fire pit, I also did some weeding in the garden out back and took some pictures of the plants.

The bean vines are starting to cover the deck fencing and if the Japanese beetles leave enough leaves for the vines to live, we may see some actual green beans.

The broccoli plants are of epic proportions.....

The cucumber plants in the barrel have tiny cukes ....

And we have baby eggplants now.....

I tired growing white variety eggplant this year.  By next week we'll be able to harvest smallish eggplants and prepare some sort of eggplant dish. 8-)
They are suppose to be less bitter than the purple eggplant but they can have more seeds and need to be peeled as the skin is tough.

In other news, I've been trying to kickstart the weight loss here as I've plateaued after my initial 49 lbs. loss.  So I've been trying to eat 2 main meals a day instead of 3.  I also eat a few small snacks along the way each day.  I tend to stay up late and rise late morning due to the heat.  So I'll have my main meal-my turkey sandwich lunch-when I get up in the morning or about an hour afterwards.
Then I eat a small snack(yogurt or fruit or both)in the late afternoon and a small dinner portion around 6-7pm.
The other day it was coming up on 4 pm and I got hungry so instead of fruit/yogurt I took some blueberries Hubs couldn't finish that were going to go bad soon, a couple hand fulls of frozen peach slices, a handful of ice and about a 1/2 cup of 100% Peach/Mango juice blend #2 Son had just opened(and hadn't guzzled the whole thing down yet!lol).
Take all that and whirr it up in the blender which gave me this......

A sorbet/slurpee frozen treat.
All natural, no added sugars or flavorings.
A cool fun thing to eat on a hot day and frugal too.

So what have you been up to at your house?

Sluggy

Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway......Week 2 Enter Now!

Time to enter Week 2 of the giveaway.
Win this box of awesomeness.

 

Well the answer to that is.....Yes, yes she is!

It's another of Sluggy's BORING BLOG BOX GIVEAWAY!

 

Here's how it works if you are new here.......

 

I put things in the box(mostly what I have gotten for free or almost free)each week and when the box is filled we draw a winner from all the entries received.

 

This time the Box of Goodies is ALL ABOUT THE LADIES with things for your Girly side.

No shaving cream or manly stuff in this box folks!

Here is what went into the Box today......

 

 

 

 

1.  a Dove Deodorant Stick

2.  a box of Crest Toothpaste

3.  a box of Aquafresh Toothpaste

4.  a small bottle of hair Conditioner

5.  a box of Eye Drops

6.  an Oral-B Pulsar Toothbrush

7.  a set of Plastic Nails(black with peace signs)

If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways HERE.  *As always, if you are located outside the US, you CAN enter and win but weight restrictions/shipping costs may mean your prize box will contain less items.*

***Time to enter.....You can enter on this Giveaway post until I close this post to entries.

1 entry per person per day on THIS POST.
Leave your name/email address and a COMMENT on this post.  

This week I want to hear about the home projects you have going on.  Do you enjoy doing DIY home projects or do you let the pros handle it all?

Are they massive and costly or small and cheapy projects? 

Or do you wish you had the funds/time/ability to do some home projects? 

If you are in the midst of project(s), are you ready for them to be over yet?....I sure wish that was me. lol

 

You can come directly to this blog post or find it through the link on the right side bar to leave 1 comment per day.  The current Giveaway Post will be linked right at the top of the side bar.

Please NOTE--You MUST be a follower to enter the Giveaway.  If you aren't one, just click on the "Follow" button on the right hand side of my blog to become a follower.

There are 2 ways to get 2 EXTRA entries on this and each new Giveaway Post.......

1. Put my blog on your blog's Blogroll.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with the URL of your blog so I can go check it out. **If I'm already on your Blogroll, say so in an extra entry comment once each week of this giveaway.

2.  Blog about this Giveaway on your blog with a link to this post.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with a link to your blog post so I can go view it.  You can do this extra entry once each week of this giveaway.

 

These giveaways run about 4 weeks, depending on how often I get a blog post done.  The winner will be drawn from all valid entries received before the closing date of the giveaway.


 Any questions?  Just email me.

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy