So my brother got a Fitbit recently. I have a Fitbit. He realized there is a “challenge” feature were we can compete against each other for weekly step counts.
I have never walked more in my goddamn life.
Continue reading “Walks Like a Bhutan Death March and This and That”
Originally posted in 2016:
Here is a brief list of some of the books that made me who I am today.
Continue reading “Books that made me”
Considering I’m sitting here in unmatched socks and a bathrobe I’m really wondering if I’m one to be offering tips of any kind… but it’s one of those blog ideas I had while blow drying my hair that I wrote about on the last post and so I’m hoping whatever I was thinking about rises back up to the surface as I type… it’ll be a surprise for both of us to see where this list goes!
First up: Ebay
Cross reference any book (especially if its older) on Ebay before you purchase on Amazon. Goodwill has a book division that sells books on Ebay for steep discounts… like just a few bucks for a hardback. And a lot of libraries sell their older books as well. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve bought off Ebay this year, but damned if I’m not gonna try:
Grand total is neighborhood of $60 on books for the year. Anyway, the tip is check there first.
Second up: Ebay
I also bought this rug on Ebay for $28 and free shipping
I could have asked him to move I guess. He’s not wearing weird mid-calf shorts, was just the camera angle.
Look, Ebay is great for books and rugs… I’ve bought some earrings on there too… but steer clear of anything name brand or anything glass (learned not to buy wine glasses on there this year…) etc.
Now this rug? It definitely is old, which is what I wanted, and a third the price or less than it would be in a shop. If it really is or isn’t a 1930s Afghan rug I really don’t know. Also, it’s what’s called over-dyed, where they know Americans almost always just want red rugs and so old rugs are dyed that color in a little too vivid of a red to ever seem authentic. But for me, I don’t stand on my art and so am not a rug purist.
I also have count ’em 4 cats- so between the slight risk of cat pee (they mostly stick to bathmats and only when I miss their cranberry pills) and sharpened claws I wouldn’t drop any substantial money on a rug. But whatever- I like it and that’s what matters! Even the larger rug sizes are cheap and generally have free shipping… it’s an untapped rug resource, I tell ya what.
Finally- I have NO patience for online bidding- all these purchases have been Buy Now options, except the rug actually, but no one else bid on it so I got it at asking price.
Third Up: Cranberry Pills for Cats!
They’re treat like pills- the cats love them… so no cramming a pill down a cats’ throat involved
So the second oldest of our cats has always had some urinary tract issues, peeing places she shouldn’t when she’s uncomfortable, multiple trips to the vet due to it and crazy crystals in her urine. I think it’s because she had a litter of kittens much to young, which I take the blame for, so am more forgiving about all the bathmat cat pee than I would be otherwise. I actually got a call from the vet’s office when my husband was dropping her off to be spayed- he said they could still do the spay but it’d be more expensive because she was already pregnant and what did I want to do? I was horrified! I said of course we’ll keep the kittens and to bring her back. As my husband was hanging up the phone I heard him tell the vet one of the funniest lines I’ve ever heard in my life: “I guess we’re only pro-choice when it’s people…” It, to this day, still cracks me up.
They were cute kittens. My brother kept one. But boy did it jack with that cat to have kittens so young, so like, don’t do that. Anyway- these pills work WONDERS. I shake the jar and the cat comes running and jumps on the counter to eat two of them a night and no bathmat peeing ensues. I used to break the pills in half, but they’re chewable so now I just let her have at them whole. I buy these on Amazon. They make a hairball one too, which has been successful with the long haired white cat in the past. That one (our oldest) now ALSO gets one of the cranberry pills, just in case he needs it because he occasionally likes peeing in laundry baskets of clean clothes right in front of you and how we haven’t murdered him for it yet is a mystery. He’s aggravated about the new black and white male cat- and so his peeing is just him being a jerk and trying to tell us to drop the new cat off a bridge in a sack, I think. Still though… cranberry pills just in case.
The full list of our cats, for clarity:
I promise my house doesn’t reek of cat pee- regardless of how I have made this all sound.
That’s it. It’s a weird and short list- but it’s pretty outside and I should really go garden. High of 70, low of 60- god bless winter in Texas!
So we had a VERY impromptu garage sale this weekend. Our neighbor across the street has a pretty regular garage sale, and since she was having one this weekend we decided to glom on and hold one ourselves. (we put our own signs up to help draw more people to the street. I hope the god of the etiquette of garage sales is placated by that and is merciful with us.) Can I tell you how much we love garage sales? My goodness- the enjoyment I get from offloading STUFF and people watching- love everything about it. We held one with some friends of ours many a year ago and they made fun of the bag of wine corks I put out for sale, some very serious ribbing was put up with I tell you. And then the joy the next day when a lady declared that her daughter had forbidden her from getting anything for her unless it was wine corks- oh the sweet sweet vindication! Said friends didn’t sell their tuba rack- so take that, losers.
Anyway, so we worked late in the night on Friday to unpack and stage three SUV loads of boxes from the storage room and we donated everything we didn’t sell at noon on Saturday. And as a bonus, we made enough money to replace the 6 patio chairs that were getting dangerously rusted through in parts with new ones. I’ve worried about those old chairs for the past year. The metal on the underside of the front was jagged in a couple places- it was some stitches and a tetanus shot waiting to happen.
…I was two and my parents didn’t replace some rusted patio chairs like they should have
After the garage sale we took back the empty bins to the storage unit and got rid of about 5 more boxes worth of stuff and organized it. I hope to one day very soon be able to get rid of the storage unit entirely. We got it to put things in to stage our last house while selling it… and then ended up buying a house with no garage and less storage… so there it has sat for three years- full of junk. Hopefully soon we’ll get the carport and storage room up at our current house- we have the slab poured… hopefully soon.
Anyway, after sweating through some serious heat and humidity with all of that, we then gardened and barbecued outside yesterday and then took a walk with the girls in the evening downtown for ice-cream because screw you, sense of reason. So… sitting in bed in cold AC to write a long blog post might be in order this morning. Might.
To the house first before tomatoes! So our router is on a corner of our kitchen counter, and that also is where the phone charger and fitbit charger are. (18,116 steps yesterday, 7 hours, 17 minutes of sleep. I love this thing.) So that corner looks like this:
That’s actually better than it usually looks, honestly…
And I got so tired of looking at it it now looks like this:
Want to hide something you don’t like? Have you tried hiding it?
You have no idea how happy this has made me. So the containers are these old tin flour and tea containers my mom had forever, and I don’t know why I love them the way I do, but they’re two of my favorite things ever. And you see that top cookbook? My Meemaw’s copy of the Joy of Cooking, complete with her handwritten notes.
They’re in cursive though so they might as well be hieroglyphics. Add chick baths? Oh wait, broth… I bet it’s broth
So anyway, I’m pleased with it/myself, but I also will be replacing the important stuff with other, more expendable things because I keep moving them farther and farther away due to a fear that this whole set up is a fire risk. Which, the router has 6 inches all the way around it and isn’t covered on the top but still. I worry.
On to the garden and pets!
DO YOU SEE THIS GOOD BOY? Walking on the path my god dogs do not get better than this one I tell you
Remember how I mentioned I may have misplanted the purple horse mint on the front right corner… yeah…
I had an entourage today on the morning stroll. Some of the new patio chairs in view
She runs between your feet to throw herself down right in front of you… should have named her Future Broken Hip instead of Lacey. But she’s the 9-year-old’s cat, so it wasn’t up to me
And no escaping without the tomatoes!
Sungold, 5′ 4″ tall and growing. Turns out it’s an orange cherry tomato which I really should have put together from the name but I totally did not
Sweet 100
HM 1823
Bobcat
HM 1823 with Bobcat in the background- look at that pretty fruit set!
The two-year-old has discovered these plants are tomatoes. None have been lost to toddler predation yet but it’s just a matter of time. I’ve told her she has to at least wait till they turn red… we’ll see how long that rule holds.
Ah flu misery can sure turn me into a heartless bitch. And considering the only thing I’m “hopped up on” to cope is Theraflu I really have no outside agency to blame. I’m sweaty. And shivery. And HATED, with a passion, The Little Book of Hygge (pronounced Hoo-ga, because, sure?)
And I thought I’d like it- it got a good review in Real Simple magazine. I’m a cultural anthropologist and dig learning about other cultures. I liked Marie Kondo’s book on organizing… I thought I’d like this in a similar fashion. Did I?
It’s god damn insufferable is what it is. How self congratulatory can you f-ing get, Danes? Hygge is the concept of coziness (roughly) and something about expensive lighting? And how they go to crap restaurants because the lighting is good? And why schools have candles and they think that’s a great idea? WTH.
The writing sucked, and I’ll give a little of that to possible translation issues, but it read like the Japanese commercials on the Simpsons:
Which- I will give all the license to in the world to the author there- translations hitting the right cadence and structure on the head are really hard (whispers: but Marie Kondo did it just fine). This one didn’t get it right. I’d forgive that. It just added a really stilted delivery of the “We so adorable! You be adorable tooooooo! Maybe add a scarf to that outfit?”
And so much… common sense? Maybe some of this was new information to folks but I got nothing new out of it. Have a fireplace if you can! Newsflash: eat food you like! Camping helps shake off city living malaise! Decorate your house with stuff you actually like! Wear comfortable clothes! Be friends… with your friends! Maybe overhead florescent lights are a bad idea! Christmas is the best! Who doesn’t know this stuff already?!
And again- so self celebratory. Look. It’s great that you think woven paper hearts are cool at Christmas. Awesome, Danes. But it isn’t necessary for enjoying the season, you know? That’s stupidly specific. Just like the 3 recommendations for lamps.
Sometimes I wonder- did I get that Cultural Anthropology degree for any other reason than to be able to tack on “But it’s okay, I’m an Anthropologist” to taking the mickey out of another culture? Dude I might have.
A poem:
Oh book of Hygge (hoo-ga)
I really hated you-a
Even if I didn’t have the flu-a
I still would think you blew-a
the something garden 