A matter of opinion . . . .

I know I haven't written much lately - haven't had a whole lot to write about.

Let's see . . . Hubby started a new job this week. No more 1.5 hour commutes! YAY!!! (of course that means more time with him - which could be good..... or bad {wink} [grin])

Umm - our tree is up and mostly decorated - I'll have to take a picture of it to post later on.

We lit our candles every night this year. (But don't worry, my mom and brother didn't get to light theirs this year, so it balanced out on the green end. That story - was just weird... trying to get people to light one less candle for Chanukah to help the environment. I think some of the protesters were right - deal with the trucks first, those are worse by far than a candle that burns for about an hour.) My husband even tried to recite the prayer with me every night. His pronunciation leaves something to be desired, but he's getting there.

The puppies seem to get depressed every time we take off their jingle bell collars... :) I find that amusing as hell.

OH! And today is the first day of Agnostica. Happy Agnostica everyone!

Now... I guess I can start with the nitty gritty.

Not much ALIT news to be honest - the only tidbits I'm hearing are:
1. Sukaspawn at 17 months old is apparently not sleeping through the night for some reason.
2. Apparently SukaStar had to let the weekend 'help' go because she didn't work as hard as Hello. OF course I didn't know they had weekend 'help' - i thought that was Star's job. But apparently they did, and Auntie EM was paying for it!!! (probably out of guilt over Star's illness...)

Now - for my Rant. I find this moderately disturbing and somewhat disgusting. Go on - read it, I'll wait for you to come back . . .

(humming of Jeopardy theme song . . .)

(tapping of fingers . . . )

Ok - back now?? Cool - We found this of course because the article was written by Suka. I was prepared to dislike the subject only because of that, but I read it - and I thought about it - and well, I still don't like the subject.

There are a few reasons.
1. It seems to me, that charity should not require a fashion show, raffles for big screen tv's etc. They frequently do - and that is ok I guess, but to me it isn't something to be overly proud of ya know? I'd rather give a pat on the back to the person who donated the TV. That's a hefty donation. . .

2. They raised $18K give or take. For widows and children in Is. Now - maybe I'm a bad jew for saying this - I don't know - but seems to me (especially living in NY) that there are plenty of things at home that could use that money - don't they say Charity begins at home??

3. I find it somewhat sickening how proud they all are to wear their shirts that say "I can afford to buy my $300 Jimmy's and the $400 Manolo's and my $100 T-SHIRTS, so dropping $100 for a raffle to win a TV I could afford anyway is nothing. . . " and are all patting themselves on the back for the good they are doing - when what they are also doing is promoting how self important they are with their fashion. I mean really... can anyone honestly tell me what makes a pair of Jimmy's or Manolos worth THAT much money? I"m willing to spend $100-$150 on a pair of shoes, especially if they are well made, COMFORTABLE, and will last a while. But I usually try to spend a lot less than that.

4. Wow - people came from ALL the way as far as a whopping 40 minutes to this thing... that is *REALLY * far reaching - let me tell you. (and yet, no one from Manhattan the fashion mecca thought they should come . . . ) MY opinion: They are all Posers....

What do you think?

MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE

It's like the seagulls from Finding Nemo... Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine . . .

yes folks - we have an ALIT story. :)

Relatively short - but is a good example of what is to come in the future.


Apparenly Star was discussing what he was going to do for his nephews for the holidays and was planning I think to give them like $75, or $75 savings bonds - something like that.

So Suka says, "Make sure they know that Sukaspawn wants Jewelry for Chanukah."

Yup - that is correct. The 16 month old little girl apparently wants jewelry. Auntie em went over there recently, and she had on this gold bangle bracelet. (16 months old folks!) She promptly went to show it off, holding her little fist in Auntie Em's face making her look. Then she saw the gold necklace Auntie Em was wearing and started to grab for it saying "MINE MINE!"

Yup - definitely the Suka's daughter.

And I think she is really working to kill the Star. He's having all kinds of health issues, not being able to eat, losing weight, bleeding where there shouldn't be any bleeding....

I think he's finally going for a colonoscopy - but the stress is really starting to take a MAJOR toll - and can you imagine what will happen in March when the new baby is born???? That and Hello is very quietly looking around for other employment.... that will get interesting - I mean - imagine if she had to actually take care of her children herself.... we already see the influence she has on her daughter and her daugher barely knows her...

Sad isn't it??? Ah well... at least we're really watching from the outside now - not really a part of it anymore... Thank the goddess... :)

They are all nuts... mixed bag... :) macadamia, brazil, walnuts.... :)

all of 'em...

I'm told that my cousin A and his wife E painted THEIR new living room red too... it's like Build a Shrine to B this year apparently....

Ahh well - hope you all enjoyed the story. In the mean time - enjoy this video of my brother's crazy dog. :) (you probably need to turn your head to the right.)

Beginnings . . .

So -

As I've mentioned elsewhere - I just started taking a class in Macro Photography - so I thought I'd share some of my favorite shots from the first class. Maybe I'll share them through the entire class and see what people thing of the pictures. :)

To start with - my equipment:
Canon Digital Rebel (6.0MP)
Canon 100mm Macro Lens
Canon MT-24EX Flash.

Class on saturday was the first day I'd ever used the flash. It's pretty funky to play with. :)

So - Some of my favorite Pics:

Tree Bark:
I just love the
textures of this
picture.









Rock:
The different
elements in this
picture make it
visually interesting
(IMHO of course)








Leaf:
Very stark on
the background.










Tree P*rn:
That of course
is the first
thing I see.

Less dirty
minded people
see a wrecked
viking long boat
or something
similar.


The Following 2 are my favorites. I call them the "bullet holes" although they are more likely from a BB gun as opposed to a bullet hole.

With Flash












Without Flash
(seems kind of
opposite though
doesn't it?)

All the rules
change when it
comes to Macro.

:)



So Honest opinions everyone - what do you all think of my very first foray into this world.

These were all done on a saturday afternoon, outdoors, downtown, WINDY as heck... :) and
short notice. All experimentation - and *ALL* completely unaltered except for converting them from RAW to JPG and to a better size for web/email.

Thanks in advance!

HAHAHAHAH FINALLY!

I can FINALLY post some reality without it being Searchable... the cast members of ALIT can sometimes be *SOOOO* accommodating.

So here it is - more than 2 months after it happened -

My stepdad
threw it out -
Thought it
was an ad.

Really looks like
some generic
thing you'd get
in a picture frame
at a store though
doesn't it??

Heck - i know
my cousin well
and it took me a minute to realize it was him in the middle picture.

BTW - more from ALIT - apparently Suka is having a boy. They are planning to name him after star's father I believe. They spent some time really put cousin P down, by saying how THEY would be continuing the name, BY BLOOD. Well P's son has her father's name. But not the last name. Star's son will have the *WHOLE* name first and last - and not just the last name either like Baby Clean Floor. And anyway - BCF has the name - but not by blood (since BCF's daddy is adopted.) Do you believe that obnoxiousness?

So that means 2 first cousins, same generation - will have the same first name. If it weren't so sad - I'd be laughing thinking about that scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding - when they are roasting the lamb on the spit in the front yard, and they introduce everyone as Nick. I really feel for my cousin P and for her son D who basically gets completely slighted and punished by his mother's decision to be SANE and not live in the midst of all the ALIT garbage. . .

Oh well - that's about all that's new here - OMG 3 new posts in like a week or a week and a half. What *IS* this world coming to? :)

SPORK!!!!!!!!!!!!

The title has absolutely *NOTHING* to do with this post. I was just feeling silly.

So - last night I worked trick or treating at the mall. We were out of candy by 615. (i started at 545.)

The amount of kids coming back for extras - greedy little buggers. :) I mean one kid, the 2nd time he came by - I gave him another piece because with *SO* many kids I couldn't be completely sure I hadn't seen him before. The 3rd time though, he came by with his mask on this time, and I KNEW it was him anyway - so I told him no.

Sadly - the adults were worse. One woman came up around 540 while I was standing with S (one of our managers) who was handing out candy. She said "I have 2 kids at home in wheel chairs, and what with all of their equipment and having to clean them up and all that, I'm just doing the trick or treating for them." So S gave her a candy. Then 20 minutes later, she came up and gave me the EXACT same story. (It wasn't worth the argument, so I gave her 1 more piece, but I think its sad that the adults feel the need to do that. )

My friend A who is manager of a certain chocolate store had her own issues. Obviously they aren't giving out their own product, too expensive to be honest, and not individually wrapped so not considered safe. So they bought a bunch of candy and were giving it out. A told me she almost punched the woman that came up to her next. They had completely run out of candy (also around 6:15) and the woman went off on A about how rude and obnoxious it was that they ran out of candy so early and how cheap the store was and how they RUINED her child's evening and that she would never shop there again.

umm - This is free candy folks. Would you go off on someone at their house if they were out of candy? (I mean heck, there was one kid I wouldn't give candy to - he was about 15 or 16 and had no costume. Just a bag. I told him - no costume, no candy - unless he wanted to perform to earn it. He didn't.)

But in the long run there were TONS of adorable kids who were there and having fun (and fallling asleep :) )

Now, even though I work there - what is a trip to a bookstore with out buying a book? See what happened was this. . .

I was holding the mini X-mas trees and commenting "Riiight, turn the JEW into the X-mas display." :) So the new guy heard me, started cracking up and then brought me a book to look at.

It was this.















So far, I've only read a little but it is VERY amusing. I am thoroughly enjoying it . . . :)

I love the things they come out with . . . .

Hope everyone had a good Halloween - and NO, the world is NOT coming to an end because I posted twice in 1 week. :)

The bunnies of indecision. . .

Now - if that isn't a strange post title, I don't know what is . . . :)

The explanation - it is a silly one, but there isn't a WHOLE lot that I really want/can write about right now. :)

Here are the bunnies: (2 of them at any rate)
I know it is hard
to see here, but
you can click and
see it bigger. I
just could *NOT*
decide on what
color to make
the eyes of the
beige bunny.

I had 2 blues,
green, brown,
and red.

Well - Red isn't a good idea. Only if I'm making a bunny for the Monty Python crowd I think.

The Brown was so dark (not that these aren't dark. . . )

So finally I did a green and a blue. (for reference, the fabric 'paint' dries lighter than you see it here. You can definitely see the color difference now this morning when it's dry.)

These were made for a friend of mine at work who just had a new baby, and he also has a 2 year old little boy - so gotta make for both of them ya know?

(Btw, if anyone is interested in having one of these made to give as a gift or for their own kid, PLEASE contact me and we can discuss cost and customizations. I enjoy making these quite a bit. And pretty much any pattern/color I can find in the fabric, I can make.)

Sorry there is no new ALIT news - we are studiously avoiding the folks in NY, for any number of reasons. Not the least of which is that there is stuff going on that we don't want to tell THEM about as soon as they hear it, it will be "woe is me, poor me, what i have to deal with that *MY* family is going through this . . . blah blah blah" when really - they have nothing to do with it.

Honestly - I think my husband is disappointed. Every night he asks if there's any new family dramas and lately I've been saying no a lot. I think he misses his "soap." :)

Other than that - things are relatively quiet here - nothing much to say which is why I haven't blogged much as late.

I am going to be taking a photography class starting saturday for 6 weeks. It is a Macro Photography class, so learning how to photograph LITTLE things. :) You might see more updates if I manage to take pictures of anything really cool. :) Gotta share and get opinions after all. :)

So that is all for now folks.

Have a great day! :)

2 bottles of beer . . .

Those who know my last name in real life probably appreciate the BAD joke I'm trying to make with the title. . .

So anyway - it has now been 2 years that I've been married. 2 WHOLE YEARS! Amazing isn't it? :)

Things are good and I'm happy, and as I told my husband, No regrets.

Hubby and I went out to dinner at a local brew pub that we like - I had beer cheese soup. I haven't had that in YEARS. That of course completely filled me up so I barely ate my dinner. Which was a lovely rare flat iron steak with green beens and carrots. I stole the horseradish sauce from my husband's appetizer and it was lovely. :) (And lovely again Tuesday night for leftover dinner.) Didn't have much beer though - ironically. :)

I gave my husband the DVD set he'd been wanting and he gave me this:



(Those are MY glasses. I
find that Dronkey makes a
great place to put my
glasses at night, since they
don't fold up. . . )

Hubby has been trying to
find me one of these for a few
years. Ever since we saw Shrek2
in the theatre and he saw
my reaction to them on
the screen. But he's not
as computer saavy as I.

He finally told me a week or 2 ago that he'd been trying to find one for a couple of years. I told him that in the future, if he's trying to find something for me but doesn't want to tell me what it is, he should email my mom or minijaxter as they should be able to find it for him. :)

So my mom then told me that hubby got me something silly. So I said "is it a dronkey?" To which mom played dumb very convincingly and claimed to not know what a dronkey is and got all cute and stuff when she found out. :) she did a good job.

So - there isn't a whole lot of ALIT going on. The only new thing is that Suka is preggo again. We all knew it wouldn't take long after her sister in law was preggo. So now that Baby Clean Floor (BCF) is born, they of course have to catch up. Or at least Suka does.

I realise however that there are those out there who probably don't know why the new baby M is called Baby Clean Floor. I have been remiss and I'm sorry.

Here's the story:

Auntie Em was very distraught when she heard the name they had chosen. "How can they name him that? It's not a jewish name, or a LI name, and it's horrible and how could they do that?" etc etc etc. So Cousin P said "ma, if you're smart - you'll keep your mouth shut about it and live with it." So she did. A few days later Auntie em starts going on with "Oh P, isn't it wonderful? Isn't it such a wonderful jewish name that they've chosen?" P at this point is understandably puzzled. Auntie Em continues "The name... it's really from a hebrew word!" (the word to which she refers, if you take the name from the previous post, put the emphasis on the last syllable and pronounce it REEK you'll have it. - For now i'll just use Reek as the word itself.) "yes, REEK! In hebrew it means SHINY or BRIGHT!" Umm.. ok. Sure.

So a few days later Star is talking to his friend who lives in a certain jewish country overseas. He says "isn't it great how they picked a jewish word to be his name?" and his friend says "umm, star.. . . You do realize that REEK means 'Clean Floor' right?"

Mom confirmed it with another friend of hers, and it is definitely an idiom in the spoken language to mean Clean Floor. It can also mean bright, but not in the way Aunie Em thought . . . more like "oh yeha... realllll bright." Noted with much sarcasm.

So we have a new character to add to the list. BCF - Baby Clean Floor. :)

And I guess in about 5 or 6 months we'll have Sukaspawn the second.

Enjoy!

breathlessly awaiting . . .

I would say you are all breathlessly awaiting the answer to the previous post, but the truth is I've told most of you the answers anyway. :)

But for those who don't see me in real life or talk to me in real life very often here is the answer - In a non searchable form. :)

Give me an M
Give me an A
Give me a V
Give me an E
Give me an R
Give me an I
Give me a C
Give me a K


Give me an S
Give me an A
Give me an I
Give me an L

Yep - that is the name this poor child will be growing up with. Gotta love it eh?

Hope you all had fun guessing.

In other news related - the new parents are feeling somewhat paranoid apparently.

Before MSH was born, they sent out an email with a URL for the hospital nursery where they post pictures of the newborns. This way everyone could see the baby right away. Well when he was born cousin P called, and A told her he'd send her pics soon. She said, "well I can just go to the website. . . " at which point A FREAKED out about "where did you get that from?? how did you find out about it?? No don't worry E, it's not up there, we made sure it isn't . . . " etc. Very Odd.

My mother and I have decided NOT to go to the Bris this week. We figure we can get the stories and then some from Cousin P. We won't get points for going up, we'll be ignored most of the time, and on top of that we'd have to see KAR who is no longer in the hospital. And while part of me wants to go to prove we're better than they are (cuz you know they won't come down when I have a kid) the other part of me says that going up there for them, knowing they probably won't come down for me is only feeding into their "NY is the only place that matters" mentality. So - No ceremony.

Mom and I may just spend the $$ at the renn faire instead. (we do go there to shop most of the time after all. :) )

I know - 3 posts in the space of a week... what is the world coming to.

If I don't post again - have a great week/weekend folks - and hopefully I'll have some stories for all of you.

*CONTEST*

And I'm looking for some really creative answers here. (Jackie you aren't allowed cuz you know the answer already and when I reveal it - i'll do it special so it's not searchable)

Ok - So, the Star's brother (my cousin A) and his wife E became the parents of a 6lb, 20" long baby boy.

He was breech, so he was born via scheduled C-section yesterday (Thursday.)

Now, Since this is all part of ALIT - I find it some what appropriate that E seems to like Soap Style names . . . (No, not Dial or Ivory - you know the Soaps I mean. :) )

The First initial is "M"

The Middle initial is "S"

The Last - well, they can't change the last name and it's normal and I have no intention of really posting it here - but if you want to have FUN with the names the last initial is "H"

I am *REALLY* looking forward to your answers. . . .

When I get a few really good guesses i'll post the name - sort of in code. :)

Good luck!!

It's a dog eat dog world out there . . . . :)

So - I have a few things to share with you today.

Which do you want first??? Cuteness or ALIT???

Hmm - since I'm not planning to wait for an answer(grin) I'll go with ALIT, so then the coolness and cuteness can wash away the taste.

So - I'm sure you are all wondering what happened at Sukaspawn's 1st birthday party. (since that WAS the topic of my post a month ago.)

Unfortunately, we did not have a full on spy there. No one wanted to share much with us. (heck, when we were in NY the last time with the lawyer, we asked Auntie Em what they were doing, and she said "oh I don't know, something at the house, or at the temple. Nothing big." OF course, cousin P had already gotten the invitation so we knew just what was going to be happening - at least in part...)

So -turns out that Auntie Em who wasn't supposed to be paying at all, ended up paying for all the food. Only about 40 people showed (some snafu about RSVP's i think.) And Suka's parents must have reneged on some of what they promised as there was No moon bounce, No face painter, and No Disney princesses. They had a DJ. Who played all teenagery techno dance music. They paid for a 4 hour party at the temple and everyone had left by 2 hours. Sounds like one hell of a flop to me.

Now - Our trip to NY. We didn't accomplish all that much really except to solidify the divide in the family. We went through the list of items, and a good portion of them are still "missing" and of course Auntie Em says, "maybe KAR has them..." so she won't have to admit where they probably are. The big thing was the Chandelier. That is the one and ONLY item we contested on the list. Auntie Em kept saying "you take whatever you want..." and that is the only thing she flipped over. And FLIP she did. She was like a rabid thing - going from meek and sad and miserable to screaming. I swear I could almost see spittle flying out of her mouth. She went on and on about how hard her life is, and how sick her husband, and she has to deal with this and that and KAR and everything else, and now when she goes to her son's house she can be at home in her mother's dining room and everything is just like it was, with the china etc, and with all of this going on in her life how can my mother care so my about a F*CKING chandelier. Then she put her head on the table and cried. It was impressive to say the least complete with, "you said you were never coming back, and that you had everything you wanted..." - Tell me, do YOU remove light fixtures when a house is up for sale?? Exactly. Shortly thereafter she left the house and went home and refused to finish leaving Cousin A to finish up for her. It's still contested but we will probably never get it because it is already hanging in SukaStar's house. Cousin A even pulled a Tony Soprano. He very deliberately separated my mother and I - and when he had her alone in his car did the "what will it take to get you to give up the chandelier?"

Then he pulled me aside later saying he wanted to ask me something. Next thing I know he's giving me a lecture about how it's all between the sisters and I say things I shouldn't say in front of everyone etc. It was a very nasty and sneaky methodology - and there was a lot of reinforcement to the "you aren't here, so you don't know. " It was a pretty miserable visit to NY let me tell you.

So then we are on to more recent events - KAR is back in the loony bin. Psychiatric ward at the hospital. This time involuntary.

The events as I understand them are as follows. KAR is watching TV. The companion (L) says "come on KAR, we need to get ready for the dr. It's time to get dressed." (she is supposed to go for a neuro workup b/c all the drugs don't seem to help so they are looking for neurological reasons to her issues.) So KAR says No, i want to watch tv. (jerry springer in case anyone is interested.) L says "ok - you have 10 minutes, then you have to get ready." So 15 minutes later L comes to get KAR and get her ready and KAR refuses. Says she doesn't want to. Then she says that she is going to call the police and tell them that L is trying to kill her. And that she will tell them that L treats her so badly she wants to kill herself etc. It's all attention grabbing on her part.

Well - She picked up the phone and dialed 911. Then she hung up. Well you can't do that, because if you hang up on a 911 then they start to worry. . . so 5 Cops show up at the door. At which point KAR is going a bit nuts and saying L wants to kill her etc. And that conditions are so bad she wants to kill herself etc. Well.. that was that. You can't threaten to kill yourself to cops - so it was immediate involuntary commitment. She keeps asking everyone in th hospital what song it is she keeps hearing, but no one else can hear it. (at one point we were told it was Onward christian soldiers, and that she was singing Oh my darling Clementine to try and overpower the voices in her head.)

Are we having fun yet?? Oh and she needs the MRI for the neuro work up - but the hospital only has a closed one, and KAR refuses to go into that one.

LI keeps turning faster and faster eh?

Now on to better stuff.

I got a tattoo this weekend. :) Here's the picture - it's on my Upper Right Arm.



















This weekend I was also puppy sitting for part of the day for my brother's dog. :) Here's some uber cuteness for you all. :) She is now 10.5 weeks old.

using Zoe as
a chin rest.












Perpendicular
Puppies :)














Falling asleep
with her head
still up. :)

overboard, underboard, hit them with a board?

So, in a few weeks we have an auspicious even occurring. Sukaspawn is turning 1 whole year old next month. This of course has sparked a flurry of planning and ideas for what to do.

Now first - what would YOU do for a first birthday party? I always thought (and granted I don't have kids myself yet) that some family a few friends, and a few other kids. Something low key, at home, or some place else kid friendly. Right?

So - Abbreviations - Location#1 = LCC (a country club) Location#2 = BE (Ball room at a religious institution) Location#3 = BS (Ball room at second religious location) Trip #1= HP (a certain chocolate amusement park, Trip#2 = IS (a certain small country in a war torn part of the middle east with religious significance.) Ok - got it? Good.

Ok - so the first idea was going to be a party for roughly 75 people at LCC. I'm still trying to figure out how that could be appropriate but hey... I"m practical. :) This is the most mild of the plans as far as I know.

#2 - Grand Ballroom at BE. With a D. Princess or a magician for 60-70 people.

#3 - "well, why don't we take her where we went on our Honeymoon?" I.e. HP. :) But that idea was nixed because Sukaspawn is too young to eat chocolate. (because THAT is the reason I would cancel a birthday party for a 1 year old at an amusement park....riiiggghhhhttt...)

#4 - "how about we take her to visit IS?" - again, a 1 year old, on a plane for umpteen hours for something she won't remember to a place that isn't precisely SAFE right now....

#5 - We're back to BE. 70+ people involved and D. Princess CinderE.
(I find it interesting they picked one of the Princesses that relied on her man more than the more modern ones.. but that's a psychology lesson for another day.)

Well, that was the current plan until they found out that BE wasn't available due to rennovations. (they don't have memberships at ANY of these locations btw, they just try to piggy back on family members.)

#6 - BS. Big ball room for approx $600-700. 70+ people. 3 D. Princesses, a Face painter, and a Moon bounce, an elaborate luncheon etc.

Apparently, when describing this to the woman at the temple, she looked at Suka and said "are you crazy?? she's 1 year old!" At which point Suka gets upset and Suka's mother takes the woman aside and berates her for being cruel and rude to her daughter and that she owes her daughter an apology etc.

They leave and go to Auntie Em's. Where suka breaks down in TEARS about how everyone is so mean to her and that she just wants to do the best for her daughter and doesn't want to cause trouble for anyone. And that she (this is good) doesn't want to cause trouble with the furniture and chandelier and Auntie Em should just take them back because she doesn't want to be a bother etc. (all done with tears.) At which point of course Auntie Em and Suka's mother calm her down and tell her of course she shouldn't give back the furniture etc and blah blah blah.

Last I heard we are up to option #7.

#7 - Downgraded to the smaller ballroom at BS for $350, and down to 2 D. Princesses. Don't know which ones, and I don't know if the moon bounce is staying and/or the face painter either. And this is all being planned for first week of august.

and You KNOW auntie Em is going to end up helping to pay for it. But when cousin P calls her mother b/c her house is in bad shape, and will require $25K worth of repair she gets "well I guess you'll just have to take out an HE loan." Nice huh?

P also tells her mother that her son will be going to 6 weeks of camp this summer because they can't afford the full 8 weeks. So Auntie Em says "why not come up here for the last 2 weeks?" So P asks what would her son do? And Auntie Em says "Well we'll enroll him in camp up here for 2 weeks, i'll pay for it." So why won't she pay the less expensive 2 weeks down where he'll already be. No, it's perfectly all right to bring a kid to the last 2 weeks of summer camp in one of the cliquiest environments in the world... right - this is a good thing. (EYE ROLL)

And last but not least - apparently Suka was talking to Auntie Em on the phone and the following comment came out: "My HUSBAND says I should have everything I want, because I deserve to be happy." Right there establishing a hierarchy... "he's *MY* husband first, and your son second..." Lovely right?

Oh well - there's your suka stories for the day. Might have more after next weekend when we go back up for final estate settlement discussion type things. I'll let you know.

For now - I will just leave you with some puppy cuteness. This is a picture of the puppy my brother is supposed to be bringing home in another week or so.

OMG i've been tagged!

It's the first time I've been individually tagged - cool. :) so here we go - Mary Bishop was the one holding the tail to pin on me this time... so without further ado:

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1)I played oboe for 14 years and miss it desperately but my practical nature won't let me spend the $$ it would cost to really have one to play.

2) I went to grad school for Theatre Production and ended up fixing computers for a living.

3) I have 4 tattoos and am scheduled for more . . . :)

4) I have a twisted view of the natural food chain - i'm a meat eater, I believe in animals doing as they were meant. I rescued a bunny yesterday from my dog, but it wouldn't have bothered me to know it was fed to a snake. . . (I used to have pet snakes.)

5) I'm an inherently lazy person - the least amount of energy required. :) (one of my favorite cartoons - Count your Sheep - said - "i'm not lazy, I'm physically Conservative!")

6) I Like cars. I'm not a "car buff" per se - but I like nice ones, and I like to be comfortable in them, and i *LOVE* to brag about what kind of deal I got on whatever my latest one is. :)

7) I used to have a motorcycle - and I still have the license.

8) I make stuffed bunnies. :)

(i'm not really sure who to tag - so anyone who reads this and wants to participate - you are tagged!)

:)

CUTENESS!!!!!

So - i have never seen Mister move as fast I saw him move this morning.

A baby bunny found it's way into our yard. :( And he caught it. On the bright side - baby bunny is doing ok. He dropped it when asked (mostly) though he did still try to play and kept following it. it found it's way into a hole trying to get away from him - but couldn't. It was crying. :(

So I picked it up and brought it inside and put it in a box. And it is now at the wild life rehabilitator being taken care of.















a little scared, a little torn skin - but no blood.

In other news - we rescued the jewelry from NY - at least the stuff we were really worried about. As for everything else - we probably won't get any of it, and we'll just have to live with it. Such is life I suppose. Not a whole lot to report on there - just... rumblings that we may have helped foster. . . and we have front row seats!! :)

Confectionary Prosthetics. . . .

(I'm going to have to get one of you bloggers to tell me how to see what people search on to get to your blogs etc, to see how much I get off of this oddball title. . .)

I'll explain the title in a bit.

First - I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. There has been *SO* much stuff going on with SukaStar et al and getting so emotional, that it was just impossible to really blog about.

The 2 mind boggling things. . .

1 -Guess who suddenly has an austrian crystal chandelier in their brand new red dining room, hanging over my grandmother's dining room set???

Yup - they took it - without asking anyone. Hopefully there will be a resolution to this soon.

2 -apparently they are furnishing their entire house by shopping at Grandma's house. The RE agent keeps telling us she finds the alarm off every time she goes to visit and the house is trashed. If they want a bookcase - they take it and dump everything else on the floor.

These are just to 2 biggies - there's been some nasty NASTY emotional stuff on everyone's part of up there, even A&E who we thought were decent - even they are making nasty an insensitive comments... - Guess who won't be getting anything handmade for their baby shower??

At any rate - time to jump topics.. (this will happen a few times today.)

So can you believe - that all of this packaging. . .
















Is for THIS??

















Gotta love it eh?? :)

Now - to explain the title...

last weekend (not this just past but the one before) me and the household knives were having some arguments. I cut 2 of my fingers on my new Mandolin slicer. Yup - sliced off little sections of my finger tips... that was fun. Then I was using my Kershaw Mezzaluna (DISTURBINGLY SHARP) and I went to clean it and accidentally ran my forefinger over it - with reasonable amount of pressure. So I had a nice 1/2" long cut that was probably at least 1/8" deep. It was bleeding. A lot. So i called my mom to see if i should get stitches - and she said "pour pepper on it." I said "HELL NO!" (my brother did that once, said it burned like 1000 suns, course it DID stop the bleeding... but no.) So she had me put a damp tea bag over it which did help the clot factor and I was able to bandage it. Then i went back to chopping, and nicked the forefinger on my left hand. at this point I had 4 fingers out of 10 bandaged and I handed the knife to my husband and said "your turn!"

So a week later I finally have no bandaids on my fingers but the big cut is still there - though thankfully finally closed all the way. So yesterday, mom and I are laying in bed watching "The Little Mermaid" which she has never seen. My husband (the pun nut) came in and said,

"just in case we have a repeat of last weekend, I decided to be prepared." And from behind his back he pulls and hands to me a Package of Lady Fingers.

I looked at them for a minute and then threw them at him while laughing hysterically at just how far my hubby will go for a joke. My THRIFTY husband spent MONEY on a joke. :) At which point while laughing I couldn't help talking about my husband's idea of Confectionary Prosthetics! :)

Later that night he brought me a bowl of ice cream with lady fingers... (very tasty dessert.)

And last but not least - for the cute factor of the day... We finally cleared the space so the loveseat was easily accessible by those afraid of giant exercise balls, so they are back at their favorite activity . . . (mister in particular)

Suka Stories!!!! :)

That's right!

I have new Suka stories . . .

So - they finally closed on the house. They have an 80/20 loan - which means the house is *fully* financed and cosigned by auntie em. Now - you have just fully financed a house that's around $700K. So what's the first thing you do with your new house?

a) Move in and relax.
b) Then spend tons of money renovating the house prior to moving in.

Can we guess which one they are doing??? Apparently all of the work is being under the table and paid cash b/c it's cheaper but Star isn't satisfied with the work that is being done.

He claims to have 5 water main shut off valves, 3 thermostats, and 4 circuit breaker panels. And he is bragging about this b/c obviously more is better.

Things they are doing in this brand new house that they just SO loved right. . .

a) New counters in the kitchen (granite we think)
b) New sink in the kitchen
c) Construction of a brand new ISLAND in the kitchen.
d) Replacing ALL carpet
e) Painting and re wallpapering the entire house
f) Finish the entire basement.
g) Re-do the main floor bathroom
h) Since the master bedroom suite is a separate addition, you have to go downstairs and then back up to get to the rest of the upstairs, so they are breaking through that as well.
i) She is Doing the Master Bedroom in Lime Green Toille.

Gods only know what this is all costing. I have to say at least $50 grand.
And they also painted the living room. . . BLOOD RED to match the red in the chairs of the dining room set they "inherited" from my grandmother.

Suka won't move in now because she claims her allergies are too bad with the work being done. So she is staying with 'mom.' Can we say how happy this made my poor cousin when she called to talk to her mother? She calls and suka says "i think she went out" but won't get off her rear end to check. She actually wanted my cousin P to call back and see if Auntie Em would pick up cuz it was too hard for her to go get her.

She says she MIGHT be able to move in when they are working on the basement because that MIGHT be far enough away but she isn't sure.

Meanwhile - this poor child - the sukaspawn. The things they do to that child - in some ways i'd have to think child abuse - but there's nothing we can do for that. . .

So you all heard about he poop puller. so that's number 1.

Apparently there has been no mention of actually child proofing this house. Baby is 9 months old, so one would think you'd want to child proof the house. Apparently not. Why you ask?? Hmm - could it be because the child is not crawling yet? Now granted, 9 months isn't that late for not crawling - some crawl early and some crawl late. However, there is a very specific reason why she isn't crawling yet. It's because . . .

Get this. . . this is too good. . . (sad really) . . .

Apparently, Hello and Auntie Em and everyone else are under ORDERS that the child will NOT be put down. She will be CARRIED everywhere and never to be put on the floor.

They also never feed her in a high chair. She is always held on their laps and fed because Suka claims the high chair back is too straight up and not good for the baby.

I find it interesting that the baby is always smiling and laughing when playing with Hello but soon as Suka walks in the baby starts crying.

The child is getting no chance to develop and learn and grow.

Now, the piece d'resistance.

The other day cousin P called Auntie Em. Suka was there with sukaspawn and Auntie Em was holding the baby. She's talking to P and the baby is screaming. P asks Em "what's wrong with the baby? That's a very angry and mad cry!" So Em says "She wants something I have and I won't give it to her." So P asks what she has and Em says that it's the phone. So P says "So give her the phone! I'll say hi to my niece." Auntie Em says "I can't give it to her, Suka won't let me." And of course P asks her why. The explanation?

.... This is good


.... This is really good. :)

Apparently, Suka won't let her have the phone because she might put it in her mouth, and that would be BAD because . . . .

wait for it . . .

hehehe . . .

The phone is ELECTRONIC!

HEHHE - Enjoy your days!

Life/perception changing things. . .

PainterGirl is hosting Create a Connection for getting to know you. Thought it might be fun to participate a bit. . .

So here goes - she wants to know: "...what book, movie and song not only changed your life, but also changed the way you thought about the medium. It could have been when you were a child or a teenager or just last week. Anytime in your life."

So - Let's see. We'll start early in age. :)

MUSIC: I grew in a musical household. My mother was a flute teacher and my brother and I both played instruments from Fairly young ages. I think the song that really started my love for music of all kinds and struck a chord (sorry for the pun - been with my husband too long) with me was 30,000 pounds of Bananas by Harry Chapin. I started hearing this when I was very young as my mother was a *HUGE* Chapin fan - and we used to say "how much do you love me?" and instead of big wide arms and saying THIS MUCH, we would open our arms wide and says "30,000 POUNDS!" :) Growing up I would listen to more Chapin songs and a lot of them would spark conversations about politics and history that songs were based on, along with pyschology and thoughts about the education system etc, as well as hearing about relationships in many of his songs. It was a way to learn about life through music.

BOOKS: I was 13. I was a complete and utter couch potato. Would come home from school and watch TV all evening. I would do homework at school so it wouldn't interfere. I started reading at a very young age and was good at it - but it was too much like school work. When I was 13, I went to a bat mitzvah and met a new friend. She introduced me to this book. This is the book that got me started back into a love of reading. It introduced to me an entirely new genre and type of writing and I voraciously read all of her books that summer. Mercedes Lackey is very good at sucking in people. I have outgrown a lot of her writing now and having read a lot more things that are more sophisticated etc, I can see the simplicity in it, and yet, I can reread Arrows of the Queen and that whole series over and over and over and never get tired of them. They are old friends. And now I've spent the last 6.5 years working part time in a bookstore and learning about all the other wonderful authors out there and continuously renewing my joy in reading. And of course, having met my husband at the store while I was working, and us having very similar bookshelves, kind of adds to the life altering joy i have discovered stemming from that one book.

MOVIE: Movies are more difficult. I'm not sure if there is a particular movie that made any drastic changes in thoughts but. . . I have to say that the one movie/series that I can watch OVER AND OVER AND OVER no matter how often is The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. I know they are light, fluffy, action movies. There isn't anything deep about these movies or anything else. But the area ALWAYS entertaining to me - and whenever i'm home sick and there is nothing else on TV - those are the movies I put in the DVD player. I wore out my first set of DVD's and had to buy new copies. :)

here's today's little bit of insight into the mind of Miss Ilanna. :)

***warning - semi gross commentary below!***

In other news - Can I call em or can I call em?! - Just heard that a certain Suka was pregnant. (she lost it.) But i TOLD you all she'd be pregnant before her sister in law gave birth. And I'll bet she's retrying as we speak. (so to speak anyway) Rumor has it that she may have an eating disorder (which could certainly explain so many miscarriages so young...) We are also speculating about a possible munchausen's type thing going on. Though truth is, the girl is just playing house as far as I'm concerned. She was visiting Auntie Em and asked Auntie Em to distract sukaspawn for a moment. At which point (and I and my mother have NEVER heard of this mind you) she used some kind of TOOL to extract the usual diaper filler from her daughter stating that she doesn't "pooh" enough. Umm huh??? I mean if the kid is constipated give her a little prune juice and you are all good. My guess is she is playing with a doll. She feeds her, and then the natural progression is to change a diaper, but she does it on a schedule not on an as needed basis and so decides something is wrong if there isn't anything there. And my guess is this only happens on the weekends, b/c Hello is there during the week. I am also willing to bet it's more often done when in 'public' to show off just how good of a mommy she is being. Ahh well - just had to get that off my chest and well.. it's new Suka story which i'm sure you all await with baited breath. :)

Let's see how long it takes for Auntie Em to have to start paying SukaStar's mortgage considering they bought a house for roughly $700K using an 80/20 mortgage. This should get interesting. (oh and before they move in in 2 weeks they want to repaint and wall paper the whole house, put in carpet and granite countertops - b/c suka says she can't kosher the ones that are there. And of course they want to use all of Auntie Em's contractors... we figure in hopes she'll end up paying for it all. but - for some odd reason... they can't seem to hire them. hmmmmm :) )

That's all for today folks :) I had a great time visiting my friends in TX. We just kind of hung out and relaxed all weekend. Got to see the bats fly out from under the bridge in austin which was neat. Haven't gone through the pics yet to see if any are workable. If I do I'll post them.

have a great weekend folks!

When are we done. . . ?

Ok - Today's rant is regarding this story on CNN, detailing how the University of Virginia has passed a referendum apologizing for the fact that the school used slave labor between 1819 and 1865.

I have REAL problems with what they University did along with the whole VA legislature that set the precedent. (and I know this isn't the only example)

Why are they still apologizing? I mean - let's do the math. It's 2007. That means it's 143 years since the last year they used slave labor. So for someone to have been one of the slaves working there, figure they started working at age 10 (probably too young but it's a number.) They would have to be 153 years old today to receive this apology. Added to that, people in charge of the school would have to be 173 years old to be here apologizing.

Why people now feel the need to apologize for something that happened a) 200 years ago and b) was the norm for the time does not make sense to me. In my mind, one should only apologize for something they had a direct hand in. (this does not count for things like when someone says they are sick and you say "i'm sorry..." that's empathizing, feeling bad that they feel bad.) These people did not themselves employ slaves and the slaves that were employed are long since dead. There are no more slaves in this country. The more people continue to apologize for something they didn't do, the more they indicate that they are at fault and give power to something that doesn't deserve power. It gives credence to the concept of "we were slaves 200 years ago, so we deserve special treatment and kid gloves now." I *HATE* that concept. You weren't a slave, you didn't suffer the pains and hardships, so why do you get the apology?

Does that make sense?

it's something that just frustrates me to no end. Where are the apologies to oh.. say the jews? We were slaves 3000 years ago. Did the apology time frame expire? Or how about the women who all throughout history had to server husbands and families with no pay or recognition or any say in their own fate, simply because they lacked a certain extremity? Have the romans apologized to the greeks and all other nations they conquered for taking them slaves?

Ya know - in Judaism on Yom Kippur (the day of atonement) people apologize and ask forgiveness. (only for things THEY have done mind you.) If person B does not forgive person a, then A can ask again. If person B denies forgiveness 3 time, then that is now THEIR sin and no longer person A's. To me - apologizing this many years after the fact, for something you were never directly involved in is a sin in and of itself, especially as the victims are not there to forgive you. . .

Just my thoughts for the day. . . .

Sensationalism I can do with out. . . .

I really hope that no one takes this post the wrong way.

The shootings/massacre/tragedy(whatever you want to call it) at VA Tech is an incident that is heart wrenching and terrible. I truly believe that and feel for everyone who is affected directly or indirectly by this horrible event.

However.

I have to say, that the media's handling of this situation is absolutely atrocious. I mean, last night I was sitting in the bar and a news update came on. "new information about the shootings revealed!" was one headline on the top of the screen. On the bottom "new information about the shooter!". In the middle of the screen - trisecting it was a picture of the man in his bullet proof vest etc holding guns out to either side like some sad parody of a Lara Croft: Tomb Raider cover or something. Did we really need to see that?

It's been 3 days since the incident and the newspapers are still headlining with the story - posting that picture and pictures of everyone grieving and so forth. Can't they let these people grieve in peace? We've gotten all of the information we needed within the first 2 days. It is all so sensationalized and it find that truly disgusting.

What also really bothers me is the concentration on the shooter - all of this information, his picture the constant stream of information about this person. They are making him into a hero for all those other disturbed folks out there. Why aren't they doing a story on mental illness in this country? Why aren't they doing a story on Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust Survivor who died saving the lives of his students. This is the man who should be high-lighted and praised for his selfless actions to save the lives of his students.

Or, how about as Cartoonist Mike Lukovich depicts here are we concentrating on 30+ deaths here in the US that are yes, absolutely TRAGIC and unexpected, and forgetting all about the issues over seas. All of the people dying and fighting a war that most people didn't want in the first place, based on lies, and that perpetuates long beyond when it should have ended. Why are we not paying any attention to those civilian casualties who die daily because they happen to live in a country of unrest?

This is what bothers me the most - the distortion of events by the media, the constant inundation of tragedy and death whenever we turn on the TV. For DAYS on end specials and stories about the incident bombarding us with tragedy and grief and sensationalizing a horrible event.

It happened. And while I feel for and grieve with the families of those students, can't we move on? Aren't there other things in this world that deserve this kind of coverage?

-----------------------------------
And now that the Rant is over. Let's move on to something a little more light hearted.

I bought an ID bracelet last night. It's stainless steel so no allergies. :) But it has this nice EMPTY bar on it - just waiting to be "written" on and i'm looking for suggestions.

I thought about my hebrew name - but they don't have hebrew letters. I could do it in english letters but just not the same. :)

Minijaxter came up with: "In case of emergency, Insert Chocolate."
I was also thinking - since 18 represents life (the word Chai in hebrew means life or 18) doing something like: 18, 36, 72, 144. . . Just keep on living.

What do you all think? (i'm willing to entertain serious and funny suggestions. . . )

I probably won't post tomorrow as I'm leaving in the afternoon for a weekend with my friend - so hope everyone has a good weekend and that you don't let current events keep you from living your own life.

Live it in celebration of those who can't. . .

Long arm of the . . . Mouse??

Ok - I know it's hard to see - but ...

I found this sticker on - My Tomato. That's right, my husband bought me a tomato so I could put it on my taco, and this is the produce sticker that was on it. My word... DISNEY produce?!

I found this utterly amusing and entertaining and thought I would share it with everyone. :)

In other news I am going to Austin, TX this weekend to visit one of my best friends whom I haven't seen in a long time. (not since she was in my wedding a year and a half ago. :) ) We have decided we needed girl time, so I have a feeling we're gonna leave her hubby behind for a lot of this weekend LOL.

Not too many new things happening. I have 4 more weeks of physical therapy, but doctor is happy with the progress of my knee. I went to the gym with Minijaxter this weekend, and my thighs are still a little sore from the Hip Aduction/abduction machine. :) But it was a good workout, and once PT is done, I think I may try to go to the gym more often. Maybe join up mini's gym and trade out my "pt" sessions for work out sessions. Will be interesting to see if I actually follow up on it.

For ALIT - remember how my mom didn't want folks willy nilly in my grandmother's house? Well they took that to heart, and didn't tell us that they were going in there also to provide maintenance for the boiler. So they stopped that, and now to the tune of $9000, the boiler seized and cracked and died. Then there was some leaks from the nor'easter this weekend into the basement which was discovered while the real estate agent was showing the house. (sigh) If it's not one thing it's another right?

Ahh well - when it rains it pours eh? (ducking the bad joke police....)

Health Care and drama... :)

So - I found out this past week how frustrating health care in this country can really be. I want to preface this whole thing by saying my insurance company has been absolutely FABULOUS in working with me. The rules though can make things difficult.

I have... an HMO - that's right - the whole primary care thing with referrals and everything else required. Well I didn't like my old doctors (we'll call them OD) b/c it was insane to get an appointment. If I had a cold or sinus infection I would get "sorry, but Dr. J doens't have any appointments until 2 weeks from now. I can fit you in with the Nurse Practitioner." Now - I have no objection to NP's. They do a wonderful job usually. Problem was this place a) overbooked her terribly and b) it sucked to wait 2 hours for a 3 minute cold impersonal visit with this particular NP. So i switched. The issue though: I have 2 specialists right now (Physical therapy and the orthopedist.) So to switch, i needed to see the new PCP on the first of the month and get all new referrals before I could see my specialists that month because the new referrals would cancel out the old, and you can't have 2 PCP's in one month. (or at least you can't visit 2 in one month.)

So I went to the dr my friend recommended. This is A. Small practice, willing to fit you in when you are sick etc. I figured great. Well small means that office manager is her husband and he does EVERYTHING - including taking you back to the rooms, answering the phones, filing etc. SO i go in to see her on 4/2. She agrees to the referrals, it's all good. Thursday 4/5 I call the PT office to see if the referral arrived. (he said it would probably be there the next day.) They said, nope no referral. So i call A. They aren't there until 1030am. So I leave an urgent message with the answering service. 11am and still no referral. The appt is at 1130. So I call back, and get a woman who says she just got there and doesn't know what's going on etc. She says the dr has been seeing patients since 8am, they just don't turn their phones on for a few hours. I argue with her a bit and tell her this is poor patient care etc, and she says "i'll try to write this up now and fax it over, what's their number?" and i'm like - umm.. I don't have it... don't you?? you were supposed to send it over 2 days ago. So she says she'll try to find it and send it over. I leave for PT. I get there, No referral. I call again and the office manager answers. he says "well you'll just have to reschedule the appointment because there isn't enough time to get a referral." At this point i'm VERY upset. the people at PT can't believe what's happening. I argue with him some more and finally say "well i guess i'm going to have to find a new doctor too because you are too much of an idiot to handle simple paperwork." - now... at this point in the regular customer service world the person should say "ma'am i really do not have to take that kind of abuse. If you calm down we can figure out this situation." it's basically a first warning to defuse the situation. is that what he did? no... he said: "well, no you've hurt my feelings. I guess you will have to find a new doctor," and then he hung up on me. One of the girls at PT said she knows this dr (goes there) and while the dr is nice, getting refills and referrals can be difficult. well - in my mind if you can't handle simple paperwork such as a referral, i don't care how good the dr is i'm not going to go there. At this point i'm crying and I leave PT b/c I can't have my appointment without the referral.

I call the insurance company and they are more than happy to get me an exception for my appt on friday so i wouldn't need the referral, and said they would back date a new primary care to beginning of the month. This means i'd have to pay A's office visit fee but i could still switch docs. So i call another dr a friend recommended. (B) They say, shouldn't be a problem call tomorrow for a fit in appointment and we'll get me squared away. So i officially switch and wait til the next day. (friday) I call friday morning and after much arguing, person checking with the doctor and the doctor refusing to help and finally the office manager coming on and saying "we can't fit you in as a new patient. You'll have to wait until mid may for a new patient visit, and oh yeah - it takes at least 7 days for a referral. 7 DAYS!!!!! they claim that they get *SO* many referrals they have to do (only 2 docs in the practice) that it takes at least a week for them to go through unless it's an emergency, and my situation didn't qualify.

There is a happy ending though after all of this stress. I call the insurance company again and explain the situation. I randomly pick a doc off their website. (C) They are in the same building as my PT. I've had good luck with the hospital centers so far (PT has been great) and so what the hell right? I call, explain the situation to the operator. She checks with each unit to see who is taking new patients. They tell me Dr. J is and switch me to that "unit." See - they have a LOT of doctors in the practice, but they are divided into units of only 2 or 3 so there's full staff for every 2 or 3 dr's. So they answer... and this is Good Friday mind you. And not only could they take me as a new patient, but they could fit me in THAT day! at 3pm. wow! So i took the appointment, made the switch and went later that day.

Night and day let me tell you. I got there early to do paperwork. I hadn't even sat back down after finishing the papers before they called me back at 3pm on the dot. The MA (medical assistant) did her own work up and went over my papers an history and then the doc came in about 10 minutes later. She did a very thorough history and exam and then they wrote up the referrals, and handed them to me to take with me as I left. See - not that hard!! :) when i talked to her office staff they were boggled. "7 days for a referral?? that's ridiculous, we ask for 3 days as a courtesy, but 7? And they *CAN'T* have more referrals to do than we do!"

I guess there's a big difference between competent office staff and an office that actually cares about their patients and their health as well as customer service and isn't just in it for the business.

In other news - ALIT progresses with the usual idiocy. Turns out that auntie em is actually cosigning on sukastar's house. Big surprise. They are going to end up SUCKING her dry and in the process cousin P gets attacked and left by the wayside. It gets more and more complicated the longer it goes on - too many details to go into. But one amusing bit...

My KAR(krazy aunt R if you don't remember) has a number of paintings by a very famous dead contemporary artist whom she represented when she was a lawyer. We'll call these Art. :) Suka has the GALL/Chutzpa/cajones to ask KAR, "would you mind terribly if I took one of your Art's to hang in the new house?? it would look so lovely and add so much color and cheer to the new house." Kar may be nuts but she ain't stupid. If Suka 'borrows' art, art will never be returned and she's just scammed a VERY valuable piece. Kar thankfully said no and then complained about it to Cousin P, but i mean - really! The GALL! :)

oh well - I think this post has been long enough. For your pitying cutesy feelings of the day. :) My poor puppy Z hurt her paw. She ripped the nail shell off her nail leaving the quick entirely exposed. So i took her to the emergency vet yesterday. (thankfully only $40 worth since the vet tech did the work and she didn't need to actually see the vet.) and they got her all wrapped up. I was worried about her chewing off the bandage so - the cone was brought out. Poor puppy - walked into walls and couldn't figure out how to fix it! :)

And the Answer is. . . . (drumroll please...)

A Wood burning Hot tub. Would you believe it??? :)

to me - it looked small - like kitchen bowl size. . . but no - it's a 5 foot wide bowl with a wood burner that heats the water as it goes through the coils and fills the tub. Weird huh?

oh... and it's only $6000. :)

wow - been a while eh?

I know it's been a while - i'm sorry. :) Haven't had much to say that i could say publicly and didn't feel like trying to organize all the garbage into intelligible form for anyone not living it. LOL

short and sweet today - a little contest of sorts - I'm looking for the best/most creative answer (but currect answer I suppose are ok too) - *NO CHEATING*!!!! :)

Identify this object: Have fun!

As promised...

Completed pictures of the bathroom

Tub - View 1













Tub View 2
You can see how
he trimmed
the floor so it
would be all even.











The domed
ceiling.
Supposedly
it keeps the
steam more
contained.










The double
showerhead.

neat huh?










And a clearer
view of the
UBERCUTE!

:) so adorable
huh?

hehe





In other news, I gave the bunny to D - and he ADORED IT! he thought it was just
the neatest thing - so I'm all excited.

That's about it new since well.. yesterday. :) Don't get used to this many posts in one week though. :)

Laters!

it's alive!! ALIIIIIIIIIVVVEEE AHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

:)

So anyway the project i've been working on is done.

see the story is - my friend B was wearing this blue panne velvet shirt at our friend D's birthday party. As drunk as he was, he was in tactile mode and couldn't stop petty B cuz the velvet felt so nice. :) So i was gonna make him one of my patented stuffed bunnies out of the velvet. But i ran into a few snags.

Unfortunately there weren't enough big pieces to cut the bunny out of the leftovers. and because it's so stretchy every time i cut it the whole thing curled in and malformed etc. So frankensteining the pieces together so wasn't going to work. So while I was at the fabric store I began looking for a replacement.

I found... what amounts to blue polyester muppet skin. :) It's very fuzzy, and fluffy but not in a matted fur feeling kind of way - it's more like "fun fur yarn" if you are familiar with that. And it's very nice to pet. very silky feeling.

So after much shaking and vacuuming of blue fur, and aggravated sewing and cutting etc. :)

it's complete.

I give you - The Great Blue non-velveteen Rabbit! :)

Which way did she go George? Which way did she go?

I know i haven't been here in a bit.

Not too much has been going on that I can really blog about unfortunately.

The ALIT stuff is really coming to a head with a true fracturing of family going on. Revisionist history, hurt feelings, lack of consideration of other people's feelings etc. Along with setups and manipulations upon the LI contingent's parts etc.

My view of the future, is SukaStar's house falling through, and them ending up living with Auntie Em, or trying to buy my Grandmother's house at a cheap price. Should be interesting to see what happens come May.

not too much else is happening right now. Bathfitters is installing my new tub/shower in the hall bathroom. The Installer is a Kick and a half. From brooklyn, and was a marine for 18 years, and the flirting was on full force. It was a lot of fun. He'll be back tomorrow to finish up.

Here's some pictures of the progress. I"ll post pics of the completion after it's done tomorrow.


Left wall and the Right wall

the lovely soaking tub.

As of when he left, the walls are no longer bare. They are now drywalled with green board. Tomorrow he will install the surround and all of the trim and the domed ceiling, along with the crescent curtain rod etc. I can't wait. I wish i had picture of the old one, i didn't think to take them. The old tub was pretty hideous. :)

I love bathfitters. And as many people don't realize, they don't just lay over top. If the old isn't in good shape, they rip out and replace rather than lay over. Plus, they bring all plumbing up to code and warranty the plumbing with their product for life. This guy, the plumbing wasn't leaking but it had started to corrode a bit, and he didn't like that. So he cut it all out and replaced it with new copper piping. And we bought 2 shower heads with a diverter. So we are going to have y pipe up there with a switch on it, and then there's a massaging shower head, and we also bought a Rain style shower head with an adjustable arm to make it up high so it can work the right way. :) this is gonna be an awesome shower. LOL

The last thing i'm really working on right now is a present for a friend. It's gonna be funny - but it's a pain in the A$$ right now to make, so when it's done i'll post pictures of it too. :)

Your Cuteness factor for the day:



Oh well time to get ready for PT.

Silly? me? no.... you must be mistaken - NA na na na naaaa na. :P

So apparently I'm in a silly mood today. No idea why - just feeling a whee little bit silly.

hum de hum de hum.... :)

So... silly SukaStar story... :)

Auntie Em was telling them a story because apparently Sukaspawn is starting to get her first tooth. (she was born august 5th, this seems a bit delayed to me but what do i know.) Anyways - she's tell them this story about Star's grandmother and how the tradition went, that everytime the baby got a new tooth, you were supposed to buy the mother a new pair of shoes. well, that's a loaded gun right there.

My mom remembers the tradition a little differently. She remembers "when the baby gets their FIRST tooth, you buy the BABY their first pair of shoes." That seems to make a lot more sense, since by the time of their first tooth, they are probably starting to experiment with crawling and standing maybe (depending on development.) it just indicates another milestone.

So Star takes Suka out to look at shoes, and she picks a pair. Anyone want to guess what designer she picked? I"ll give you a hint: The Devil is near by... :)


Yup - She picked out an inexpensive pair of Prada's. (only $350.) To which - my cousin showed a little bit of improvement and said "umm no, what are you smoking?" I'm told she picked another pair from nordstroms, another designer but we're not sure who. But we're guessing still over $100. :) Now - I am willing to pay over $100 for a pair of shoes. But there are certain criteria. A) i'm willing to pay for certain brands. Namely dansko primarily. Because it is an orthotically designed shoe, that i will generally wear quite a bit. they are worth the money for the most part. b) A good sturdy pair of boots or C) a well built designed dress shoe that is COMFORTABLE and that I will get a lot of use out of. But it's rare that i'm willing to spend that much.

I mean honestly - can someone please tell me what makes a pair of Prada's or Manolo's worth a few hundred dollars??? I have yet to understand that myself.


Anyway, i find that whole story very entertaining. She's now gonna get a lot of shoes that she probably doesn't need. :)

There's other stuff going on, but I may save that for the other location. I"ll let you know if i post there any time soon.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Who knew?

Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 96%

You are a terrorist-loving, Bush-bashing, "blame America first"-crowd traitor. You are in league with evil-doers who hate our freedoms. By all counts you are a liberal, and as such cleary desire the terrorists to succeed and impose their harsh theocratic restrictions on us all. You are fit to be hung for treason! Luckily George Bush is tapping your internet connection and is now aware of your thought-crime. Have a nice day.... in Guantanamo!

Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

So who knew that i'm rooting for the bad guys? Certainly *I* didn't. This is a very amusing and yet sobering quiz. It's all tongue in cheek but does let you know just how stupid the rhetoric out there really is. Of course the % in this test came from answering questions like, Do you think wire tapping without a warrant is ok?

For a much more thought provoking (and less darkly humorous) post, check out Edi-Tori-als today. She wrote an interesting post about how our wounded and soldiers are treated upon their return from a battle we shouldn't be fighting in the first place.

In other news:

The doc has declared it's time for me to go to physical therapy. So after dealing with allt he various insurance things (friggin' HMO) i'm scheduled to start sometime next week. I also had my very FIRST morning session with the personal trainer. :) Strangely it was not exhausting. i won't say yet that it was invigorating, but we'll give it a little more time. :)

On the ALIT side of things - Star (of SukaStar) is trying to stir the sh*t and got Kar to call basically call my mom and start in on her about things. During a discussion of my mom wanting Legacies for her children from their grandparents (physical ones), she stated to Kar that we would like to have something physical and not just our memories. To which Kar responded "well you just may have to live with only your memories." To which my mother says "excuse me?" and she goes "well if we decide you can't have anything then it's 2 to 1 and you can't do anything about it."

I think war is being declared. My mother who has tried to remain peaceable and fair minded through out this entire ordeal, is fed up. (btw, it will be one year on march 9th) It will be interesting to see how things progress from here. Stay tuned...