Spider-mania

It's no secret that I don't like bugs.  Of any kind, but the bug that strikes to most terror in my heart is spiders.  I hate them.

Spiders LOVE to live near water.  My friend Brenda, who lives on a big pond, told me that they spray a couple of times a year to keep the spiders at bay.  I worked with MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for years, so I'm not fond of poisonous chemicals and what they do to people -- so spraying isn't an option in my book.  I'm very grateful for Mr. Fly Swat, and I use him often.

It really annoys me to walk into a room in my home and see a web hanging from one of the track lights and attached to the armoire/entertainment center.  Grrrrr.  I hate looking at my collection of knick-knacks and seeing cobwebs attached to them.  Didn't I just dust them a week ago and now they're back???

Before I go to sleep, I do my nightly bug watch.  Check the corners of the ceiling and work my way to the middle.  Any spider up there had better be prepared for death, because I'm not going to sleep with one in my bedroom.

I remember one morning waking up and reaching for a tissue and there, sitting on my nightstand was a spider.  AHHHHHHHRRRRRGGGGG!!!

Last night, I couldn't sleep, so I got up to check my e-mail.  (Doesn't everyone?)  And there, smack-dab in the middle of the screen, was a SPIDER.  Usually I'd let out a little scream -- but as everyone was sleeping (husband and cats) I had to stifle my scream and just squish Mr. Spider.

My aunt wouldn't approve of this wanton killing spree.  I know spiders are good.  They eat other bugs.  But they could live Long and Happy Lives if they didn't enter my living space.  It's that simple.

Are you afraid of spiders?

Wanted: One Shopping Pal

Years ago, I had a friend and we did lots of cool stuff together.  This friend--oh, let's for the heck of it just call her Judy--and I used to go to the movies, attend local meetings, and SHOP.

Then she moved away.  Although I've made other friends, none of them have been shopping buddies.  I miss that.  I miss going to look at dishes, and furniture, and BOOKS, and office supplies, and music and stuff.  And the thing is, while I still love to window shop for these things, I hate doing it alone.

Lots of times I'll think about going to mall to look at china (not to buy, I already have a beautiful set of "good" china) and glassware.  I love walking through Macy's Home Center and seeing all the pretty patterns and baubles.  I love looking at the Egyptian Cotton sheets, and all the wonderful small appliances that I don't need or have room for in my tiny kitchen.  But I don't have anyone to share that with.

I love to go in Michael's or Joann's and look at the material, the crafts, the pictures frames, the stickers, and the candles, but usually I'm with Mr. Ivy who can't get in and out of those places fast enough.  (He can't stand the ever-present scent of potpourri.)

The only thing I don't like to shop for is clothes -- or shoes.  That's just painful.

Sometimes when my friend Nancy comes home to visit, we go to bookstores, but often we just sit in a restaurant and gab for hours.  We need to so some serious shopping when she comes back in April.

Until then, I'll just think about shopping.  If nothing else, it saves money.
Do you have a shopping pal?

I dot a code in da doze . . .

I haven't had a cold in several years--but I've got one now.  As colds go, this one isn't too bad.  On the misery scale of 1 to 10, I'd say I'm only at about 6.5.  But I'm sure it would be much higher if it wasn't for my neti pot.

If you've never used one, it can be . . . kind of disgusting.  Like when you were a kid and went swimming and water got up your nose when they made you dive into the deep end.  Ick!  Only this is kinda worse. You're actually rinsing your sinuses and cleaning them of germs and other crud.  Click on the video below if you want to learn a lot more about it.



One of the worst things about having a cold is waking up in the middle of the night and NOT being able to breathe.  I got through the night just fine.

Have you ever used a neti pot?  What's your best home remedy for the common cold?

Look out for allllllll the leftovers!

It must be something in my genes that makes me cook gargantuan amounts of food.  There's just the two of us (and our four cats, and they prefer Friskees -- go figure!), but you'd think by the amount of food we prepare that we were contemplating feeding an army.

I've got a couple of really good crockpot recipes that makes enough food to feed the masses.  Mr. Ivy makes a mean chili, and a fantastic sausage/pasta/cheese/broccoli rabe concoction that is out of this world.  The problem is, these dishes also make tons of leftovers.  Now I happen to like leftovers.  I like them for lunch, dinner -- and a time or two, I've even eaten them for breakfast.  Mr. Ivy will eat leftovers once, then it's up to me to finish them off.  Hey, I'm brave and strong.  I can handle that.

Last week I had a hankering for lasagna.  This time, I made it in two separate pans so that I could give a third of it to my parents (so they wouldn't have to cook), and we had two dinners ourselves.  And we froze two more.  Ahhh, nothing like homemade lasagna.

I love it when we have roasted chicken because you can make so many second and third meals out of it.  There's just plain cold chicken; chicken pot pie; tika masala, and my favorite, chicken salad on a bed of lettuce for lunch.  We have had chicken tacos, but not often enough.  (Note to self ...)

And of course, my favorite leftover of all is turkey.  Since my family members aren't big turkey fans, every Thanksgiving I can count on getting the carcass.  I can make all the same food I can with leftover chicken, plus the added bonus of turkey soup.  (And have you ever had turkey waldorf salad?  Yum!)

You won't find me ever trying a recipe for just one or two people.  Nope, bring on the chuck wagon, folks -- I'm making enough for everybody.

Do you cook too much?

Frozen Stiff!

I've always maintained the February is the LONGEST month of the year.  Maybe not by days, but by the emotional toll it takes.

It's COLD.  And it's been COLD.  For days and days and weeks and weeks.  We had a brief thaw right after Christmas before we were slammed again with snow. Like the rest of the country, we've already had more snow than usual.  We're talking almost as much snow as we usually get ALL WINTER by mid-January--although not as bad as places like New York, Boston, and Washington,

This is what my backyard looked like this morning.  Doesn't that just send shivers down your spine?

There are little trails through the snow.  Cats and squirrels and bunnies.  All those poor animals are out there in bare feet.  I look out the window and my old-fashioned rose looks dead--like sticks.  They sky is gray behind the arborvitae. 

Spring is STILL 31 days away.

It can't come soon enough for me.

Sticker Fun

If there were stickers around when I was a kid, I never knew about them.  In my early 20s, I was into rubber stamps.  Not like people are today, with embossing powders and doing gorgeous cards and scrapbooking.  I just liked to stamp my letters (and envelopes) to friends.  (And I used to write a LOT of letters.  Now I do e-mails.)

Back in the summer, I came across some little cat stickers that Mr. Ivy had put in my Christmas stocking some years before.  I'd never used them, but decided -- why not put a cat sticker on the envelopes for the bills or on a thank you note, or when I order something in the mail?

Of course, the stickers Mr. Ivy gave me all those years ago are running low.  The next thing I know, I'm in Michaels and pawing through the nine gazillion stickers looking for cats.  I had hoped to find something similiar to what I'd been using.  No such luck, but I did find some nice cat stickers.

It was difficult to stop at just one package of stickers--so I stopped at two.  The second set?  Wonderful vintage china teacups, saucers and teapots.  Whoa!  They are so majorly cute it makes you want to puke!  Luckily, I had a coupon for 40% off, so I could get the EXPENSIVE one ($1.99) for almost half price.

So where am I going to use them?

I have no idea.  But even if I don't, I can look at them.  And if they bring me a smile, they were well worth the investment.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.  (But if you have any ideas on where I should use them--speak up!)

Are you a sucker for such things?

Careless drivers

Why don't drivers brush the snow from their car windows?

How long have we been in the midst of winter here in upstate New York?  Why don't people drive to accommodate the conditions on the road?  There's no excuse for not clearing the windows on your car.  Why on Earth would anyone be so stttttooooopppidd???

They clear one small hole on the driver's side of the windshield.  They can't see what's behind them, and usually their side mirrors are covered, too. Not only that, but they get on the expressway (freeway to you west coast readers) and the snow comes off in sheets--usually hitting other drivers' windshields.  I'm sure these jerks cause tons of accidents -- inconveniencing people and ruining lives -- all because of their laziness.

Grrrrrrrr!

Rant over.  What's bugging you today?

From me to you!

I gotta have a list . . .

No doubt about it.  If I make a list, I'm a lot more productive.  Saturday night, I made a list of 28 things I want to get done this week.  By Sunday evening, I'd accomplished 8 of them.  I've got at least four things I want to accomplish by lunchtime.  I'm hoping to get even more done by the time I turn in tonight.

Are you like me?  Do you get distracted and therefore don't seem to get much done?  I'll be in my office, decide I need something in the kitchen and walk all the way across the house only to discover I've forgotten what it was I wanted to do or get.  Yes, I definitely need to make lists.

lists really do keep you on top of things.  For instance, I have a ton of Tupperware and other assorted containers, but can I ever find the corresponding lids?  No.  And the kitchen cupboards are so full when I open a door, some plastic storage contained is bound to fall on my head.  I'm tired of this.  Marrying up the containers with the lids is another item on my list.  (Of course, finding one place to store it all is another problem that needs solving, but let's take things one at a time.)

And when I finish up all the items on this list, I'm going to make another one.  It seems to be the only way I can get stuff done.

How about you?

A job well done?

Think about the occupation of meteorologists.

Now there's a career where you can be wrong 90% of the time, never apologize, and still keep your job.

Not only are they usually wrong, they seem to delight in terrorizing us.  "There's a 70% chance of SNOW!  TAKE COVER--empty the grocery stores of milk and bread.  It'll last for two days."


Then you see a few flakes for half an hour, that immediately melt.  Ho-hum.
It was supposed to snow for five days straight.  Did it?

NO!

We were supposed to have up to three inches of snow overnight!

What did we get?  Nary a flake.

So what's annoying you today?

Hungry cats with no worries

Okay, we've got four cats.  That's not really all that much.  I like to think of it as two pairs.  (Two girls; two boys.)

Our cats like to eat.  Oy--do they like to eat!  And two or three times a year we head out to the pet store and fill up the back of the car.  Can you guess what we did the other day?

This last load of 336 cans ought to last us until June.  And wouldn't you know, a day later we got a $10 coupon in the mail.  That's okay, we're getting low on Special Care (urinary tract dry cat food) that they also eat.

Can you believe, if there's some kind of national emergency, the cats don't have to worry about food.  Meanwhile, we don't have that much stored up for us.

Well, several kinds of the cat food are pate.  We can always spread it on crackers if we get desperate.

How well do your pets eat?

My kingdom for some pockets!

Why would clothing manufacturers make sweatpants without pockets?  I mean, what gives?

I live in sweatpants.  I need to have stuff readily available.  Like a tissue.  Or Chapstick.  These are vital things, especially in winter.

Suddenly, I only seem to have sweatpants without pockets.  Where'd my pants with pockets go?  I don't remember tossing any (although I probably should--you know, the ones with bleach stains (from when I cleaned the deck of mold/moss) and paint stains, when I backed against the table that was still wet).

It's time to take a trip to K-Mart and see if I can find some sweats with pockets--you know, before all we can buy are shorts and swimsuits.  (You wouldn't want me to wander around the house with chapped lips, would you?)

Any clothing gripes from your end?

A fat-busting cooking tip

I love to bake, but I don't like the calories.  So when I bake, I often substitute the oil in a recipe with unsweetened applesauce.  (And just WHY would anyone WANT to sweeten applesauce?  It's already sweet!!!)

For Christmas, I baked a very rich carrot cake.  Because it was the first time I used that recipe, I decided to make it as directed--with a full cup of oil.  It was pretty darn good.  For Valentine's Day, I made the same cake, only this time I substituted the oil with applesauce.

How did it turn out?

Pretty good.  A bit moister, but other than that it was still a very good cake.

I noticed that my local grocery store is now selling a prune mixture, which can be used as a substitute for oil, and I'm going to buy some and try that in a recipe some time soon.  (While I contemplate going on a diet and putting all baking on hold for some time.)

What ingredient have you substituted in a recipe?

And The One Thing On My Mind This Morning . . .

Okay, let's all sing together (to the tune of White Christmas):

I'm Dreaming of some NICE waffles,
Just like the kind Mom used to make . . .

(Wanna bet I don't get any for breakfast this morning?)

What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Is Anybody Out There?

Helloooooooooo!

I've been blogging steadily (at least five days a week) for months now and am a bit discouraged that I have so few readers--despite the fact I'm on Facebook and tweet my post. Oh, one person comments every now and then (Hi, Gert!), and I know there's more of you reading ... although, not a lot.  My question ...does anybody enjoy the blog?

I'm not the only one wondering if I'm whistling in the wind. A while back, on one of my favorite blogs, Wil Wheaton said: "The Internet is quiet as hell lately. I feel like I'm talking into an empty tube, so thanks for reading and commenting; it makes me feel a little less like a crazy old man with no pants standing on the corner ranting about the weather."

He's still got more than a loyal few commenting.

I think it's a lot harder to come up with blog entries in the winter than other seasons of the year.  In the winter, I don't go out and check the progress on my beans, potatoes and tomatoes. I don't leap out of my chair to weed. I don't do a LOT in the winter. Sometimes I don't leave the house for days at a time, which doesn't give me much to write about.

Okay, there is always weather, but snowstorms are only interesting when you're watching them happen to somebody else via the Weather Channel. We've experienced them a LOT lately. We've had inches of snow, tons of icicles, and gloomy skies for days on end.  It's cold and REALLY BORING.

So what is it about winter and blogging that makes it so tough?