Feel Like Complaining

This morning we had two new family members delivered. A new fridge and stove. Both are new but from a ding and dent center. Why not save a little money, huh? These avocado lovelies came with the house 12 years ago and who knows how old they are. They still worked fine but little things were breaking down such as one of the stove handles was held together with super glue. They will take a little getting used to. I miss a side by side but with the space confinement we weren't able to go with something that size. It was hard cramming everything into the top freezer. We had to throw some things away which I suppose needed to go anyway. And I will miss the storage drawers in the stove. A large one on the side and a bottom drawer held everything we needed although the oven itself was smaller. This new smaller stove made us totally clean all cupboards out in order to rearrange pots and pans to fit. I guess that's one way to clean a kitchen. And I didn't realize that the oven i...

A killer whale has killed one of his trainers. Why should we be surprised? A thirty year-old male, Tilikum was said to have been acting like a spoiled child earlier and not responding to directions. Do you think it might have something to do with the fact that he is a WILD animal in captivity forced to do tricks for us? I think Tilikum is downright pissed and I don't blame him. He has killed 2 people before and it's horrible that another trainer has died, but come on people, you just can't take a wild animal out of his element and expect him to lose his natural instincts. He is a hunter and killer of seals and many other animal smaller than him. I read that 136 Orcas have been taken into captivity from the wild since 1961. Of those, 123 have died, with an average lifespan of four years once captured. For a species that averages 35 years in the wild, that's a pretty poor public health record. But they're big money makers and that's why they are continually be...

The other night I heard on the news they were going to do a story about someone who was arrested selling pot laced Rice Krispie Treats to local high students. I was chuckling *almost positive* that it was the other north side school, not the one right across the street from our house. Wrong. This 20 year-old was making daily trips on his bike from his house and meeting kids at lunch time in a nearby parking lot. High schools have an open campus and they can go anywhere for lunch as long as they get back in time. Detectives had been watching them for awhile and after they arrested him, they went to his house where he lives with his father. They found a a nice marijuana growing operation as well as many more treats, cookies and brownies. It seems his father was in on it too. Maybe he's the one that donned the apron and did the baking for his baby boy. They both carry legal medical cards for marijuana use but I wonder why a 20 year-old would be issued such a card...

As I post this picture I must apologize to my back east friends for flaunting our Spring-like weather. My husband spotted this crocus today, our first of the season. We will probably reach 50 today and it's a beautiful day full of sunshine. But I do have several shovels and a snow blower that I could loan out.

I missed my early morning walk to go shopping. I like to get to the store early on Thursdays and then walk later. But somehow the day just disappeared, although I had good intentions. Left the house at 11:35 to go work out. Decided to go mail my moms Valentine card first. Drove past McDonalds. Dropped off the card and turned into McDonald's parking lot. Had lunch all by myself. Drove home guiltily full of french fries. Promised my dog I would take her for a walk. Looks like rain. Besides I have to meet with my daughter's school counselor after school and I don't want to be all wet and stinky. Came home from my daughters school and patted my dog on the head. Sorry girl, it's still raining, I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow. My husband is proud that he's lost 7 lbs. due to having new bottom dentures. I think my butt found them. I hope  your day was a little more productive.

Kind of a sad day today. Captain Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie died yesterday from complications of a major stroke he suffered on Jan 29th, while offloading crab in Alaska. In the past few days he had rallied and even had some choice words for his doctors. We enjoyed watching him and his crew on Deadliest Catch and will really miss him. He made us laugh when he chewed out his kids for buying that TV with his credit card and brought it on board. But he loved them as much as he yelled at them. I hope his boys will be able to continue fishing without him at the helm.

Have you ever noticed that the things that can go wrong and are going to cost you money are in direct relationship with your tax refund? Happens every time. I just did our taxes and we will be getting back a nice refund. We laid out where this money should go. We always put money away for vacation first; because we deserve it. Secondly we are putting some in savings to use for a medical slush fund since we don't have insurance any more. Some more put aside just for fun and the most of it will go toward a bill with the largest interest payment. That sounded all well and good until Nellie's butt swelled up. Things were apparent this morning that she was in distress. We don't really always pay attention to our dogs butt licking but when it gets to be obsessive you kind of have to notice. She was also walking guarded, pacing, and panting. Now, me being the cheap frugal one of the family I thought about waiting until tomorrow morning to get her in to see our vet. But I am a...

Today we're going to play a little game of Guess The Occupation . This woman works in town and I see her everywhere, magazines, billboards, T.V., and probably bus benches too. I don't know why this ad bugs me so much. It must be because cute little blondie with the Lara Spencer pose does not look like her occupation. I want a plumber to look like a plumber, butt crack and all. I want a cop to look like a cop, except when he's right behind me. I want a teacher to look like a teacher. I want my mechanic to look like a mechanic, not like some guy out of GQ. I want my courier husband to look like a courier, 'cause I know he didn't step out of GQ. I want a waitress to look like a waitress. People are more believable when they look like their occupation. This woman does not look like a Dentist; yes she is a dentist and I'm not sure I could trust her as my dentist. She is too pretty and pink to be a dentist. She needs a white coat or at least some kind of smock w...