just random rambling around 6 months ago

at the top of his kitty cat lungs. He was in “his room” which is a place in the house he likes to hang out. His food and water is in that room, away from the dogs (so they won’t take his food away from him) and he likes to sit on the back of this wing back chair in that room (ironically leopard print) and look out the window. It’s his spot.

So last night he was complaining and when I came back into our room, Mr. HC asked what was wrong and I told him that JJ wanted his T.V turned on. Yes, JJ has a T.V. that room that is exclusively either Animal Planet or Cartoon Network. When I said he wanted his T.V. on, Mr. HC burst out laughing . . . We spoil our animals . . . ya think? 7 months ago

I took a parcel to the post office this morning to be weighed and the postage costed to Spain so I could invoice an ebay buyer.

I took exactly the same sealed parcel back to the same man in the post office this afternoon and the cost had gone up by £4.20! I can’t add that to the ebay invoice as the buyer has already paid.

He accused me of taking it home and adding items to it and refused to admit that it could possibly be his mistake as he does this for a living and said another few times that I had opened up the packet and added things to it. No apology or anything just accusations.

Basically he was calling an 8+ months pregnant and pretty hormonal woman a liar and I’m out of pocket.

Really, really upset now and was in a great mood before.

And I can’t really avoid going back there – the post office counter is situated in our village shop (both run by the same family).

Would you mention it to the ebay buyer (hoping he’ll pay the difference)? 12 months ago

Today, 05/10/2012 would have been my 33rd wedding anniversary to my children’s Father had we remained married.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 would have been my parents 58th wedding anniversary.

I have some very mixed feelings about the month of May 13 months ago

If they didn’t, you know we would have to return it! 14 months ago

It’s Mothering Sunday today in the UK and I received a “Mum-to-be” card (from my parents). He hasn’t popped out yet!

What will the greetings card industry think of next?

[Not saying it wasn’t nice of my super excited parents but what next honestly!!]

Anyone else received a bizarre greetings card? 15 months ago

I have been thinking of her and miss her entries. I wish she would come back. 15 months ago

because you want to save money and you leave it on the counter like an idiot while you go to your room to get dressed and you come back to the kitchen and one or both of the Great Danes have removed it from the counter and well, you now have to make another one . . . are you still saving money? 17 months ago

I have never had a sock monkey in my entire life, but I have always thought they were so cute.

Now I have my very own. I am thinking about adopting one of those goals like Take 43 pictures of sock monkey adventures or something to that effect. 17 months ago

(or maybe not so occasional) senior moment.

MEMORIES18 months ago

make me feel invincible!!! (although I realize I am not, at least not completely anyway) 18 months ago

Today Rob and I went to Steakenburger/Long Wongs at 19th & Dunlap expressly to participate in the “Diego Dave’s Habanero Wingz Challenge” Eat 10 Habanero Wingz in 10 minutes and get your picture on the Hall of Flame and win a t-shirt. It was a damn bad idea. I bailed at 5 wingz. Rob only made it to 2. We are both pretty miserable. Those wingz are a mother . . . . Mr HC wouldn’t even go with us. Of the 3 of us, Mr HC is definately the one with the brains! 19 months ago

What to do?

Had the plumber out for the second time in a fortnight to look at our 6 month old boiler. Stranger readings than last time and he’s scratching his head.

He goes to the side of the house and finds the vent is damaged and part is lying on the floor effectively the air leaving the boiler is being sucked straight into the boiler again reducing the oxygen and increasing the internal carbon mononxide content to 50 times the safe limit (no danger of this coming in the house luckily as the boiler is a closed system). This has been causing the boiler to play up and shut down (like it did 3 times last night).

He then finds the rubber wall ring (now superfluous that the cement has set) has been ripped off from round the vent pipe. This has not been cut with a knife or nibbled by animals.

He then realises that the bit that fell off the vent was angled at 45 degrees to get the steam up into the air had been modified to make it straight.

I think the neighbour had vandalised this but have no proof.

Fitting it back as it should be the boiler is back to working with all the readings spot on with its German efficiency.

I then go out and take photos and realise that the gutter is also damaged (where he would have leant over the boundary showing he didn’t step on our land) and part of it is missing. We’re replacing the guttering in a few weeks anyway but that’s so not the point.

The plumber who didn’t charge for the first visit 2 weeks ago as he thought it was a faulty boiler has now charged but just for 1 visit. Still it’s £60.

I’m now a bit anxious as boilers shouldn’t be tampered with. It can get dangerous.

We live in a lovely village and moved out of central London to get away from anti-social neighbours.

We have no proof it’s him but who else would it be? It’s right at the back of our house and things have been pulled from his side.

What would you do?

[update – hubby went round in a totally diplomatic way to ask if the neighbour had spotted anything or anyone there and the neighbour said he’d not seen anything. Hubby also mentioned about dangerous gasses etc. Whatever happened in the past the neighbour now knows we are aware of damage occuring and that it’s dangerous for us]20 months ago

I am not much of a morning person, but I will be there, maybe even a little early

Today in preparation

1) Got nails done
2) Gor hair trimmed
3) Got eyebrowe waxed
4) Bought new outfit
5) printed out resume
6) Changed purses

I wonder if men go through all of this madness when they go for job interviews? 21 months ago

Your tits aren’t big enough to nurse the world.”

Bottom line: I can’t fix every problem or take care of every person on the planet. Why do I keep trying? 21 months ago

about their brisk autumn weather etc. We are expecting 112 degree high here today . . . so jealous! 21 months ago

THIS is kinda crazy!

and then . . .

Someone made it into a music video

Kinda makes me want to go clubbing! 21 months ago

and I feel like crap 22 months ago

which is seriously odd for me. I never even notice that there is a 6:00 in the morning unless I am forced too and yet . . . here I am!!! 29 years ago, 07/24/1982, I was also awake at 6:00 in the morning. I had a back ache and it was quite annoying. A few hours later, it would dawn on me that there was a “pattern” to this back ache. I was in labor with my first child!!! Ah 29 years ago today, I woke up before 6:00 in the morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. I am not; however, at this time in labor. Those days are long gone.

I was really annoyed at my husband that day. There was a big sale at Cloth World that weekend. HUGE SALE!!! I had big fat plans to be at that sale. He wouldn’t let me go. I was in labor and he confiscated my car keys. I missed the sale at Cloth World

Melanie Elizabeth McCuin was born at 12:10 am on July 25, 1982. I could have made it to the sale at Cloth World and still been back in time to get to the hospital to give birth. 23 months ago

which involved me having to drive to Tucson and back today . . . at high noon in a car with broken A/C

Oh heck, it was only 110 degrees today . . . 23 months ago

Cool weather is still so far away 23 months ago

My Dad passed away December 25, 1984. I wish he were here for me to wish him Happy Father’s Day in person. I miss him. 2 years ago

will be in my Mom’s new room at the Care Home. I still need to take a few more things over there that I think she would enjoy having with her. Different little knick knacks and a couple quilts etc. After that, I have to deal with the rest of the house. The woman has some crap in that house!!!

She is not especially cluttery, but she just has this stuff that has to be dealt with. Most of it is probably not worth really much, though I know it is worth everything to her, but not to the general population.

I did find something tonight though that I need to think about and would actually welcome any information that anyone could help me with. I was moving this one cabinet over to the Care Home to use as her T.V. stand and it was funny on one hand because there was an entire drawer full of “Rabbit Ears” for various T.V.’s that she doesn’t even have anymore!!! That kind of cracked me up. But the thing that I found that I think may be worth a little money are all my parents old record albums. These puppies are probably 50+/- years old. Old Glenn Miller collections etc. Whatever I sell I need to put towards her maintenance for the rest of her life. If I have anything of value, I need to figure out how to get the best prices.

Does anyone know if these old records may be worth anything and if so, how would I sell them for her. 2 years ago

I visited my Mom today at the rehab facility she is presently in. At this place they all eat dinner in the dining room and have assigned seating. My Mom sits at a table with Ray and Muriel. It has been killing my Mom because Ray and Muriel are assigned to the same room, but Ray and Muriel have different last names. My Mom is always asking me if I think they are married or if they are “living in sin” She asks me every single time what my take on this is. (My take is frankly I don’t care, but for some reason my Mom sure does)

Muriel walks with a walker and always wears pink slippers. She is very soft spoken and was a teacher. Ray is in a wheel chair, has a fair amount of hair still and huge huge huge brown eyes and they each look after the other. Ray makes sure that her cranberry juice is at the table when she gets there. Muriel makes sure Ray cleans his plate as best he can. Tonight she gave him a portion of her food so he would eat well (The residents can have as much to eat as they want so I am not sure why she was giving him part of her meal, maybe it’s just her way to show him she cares.)

So tonight I sat with them at dinner and Muriel and I started talking about this that and the other. Muriel told me that she was 90 years old and that she and Ray had been together for 20 years. She told me she is very forgetful these days, but Ray has a mind sharp as ever. She had to ask him where they met as she could not remember. (They met at Toastmasters) Muriel went on to tell me that it was so easy to fall in love with Ray. He knew about all sorts of things, everything under the sun and was interesting and kind and charming.

“It was just so easy to fall in love with him” Muriel can’t remember what day it is (she looked at the menu three times at dinner tonight and was surprised each time to find that today was Wednesday and that they were having peanut butter bars for desert), but she remembers that it was so easy to fall in love with Ray.

That is sweet. I can hardly wait to have dinner with Ray and Muriel again. Of course my Mom is kind of annoyed that I didn’t find out if they are married or not. 2 years ago

Last night I dreamt that I too went bald. That was disturbing! 2 years ago

My Dad was born 92 years ago today. June 4, 1919. He was born on his Mom’s 22nd birthday. My Grandmother would have been 114 today. Giving birth, while a wonderful thing in it’s own right, is frankly not all that much fun. It’s not the kind of thing I would have chosen to do on my 22nd birthday 2 years ago

He is on his way home from a doctor appointment. It was mostly a follow up from when he had pneumonia. At that time his blood pressure was high and the doctor wanted to recheck him. Today it was way higher than when he was sick. He has prescriptions in hand for BP meds which I will go out and get fuilled as soon as he gets home. Mr HC is only 34 years old. I REFUSE to let him stroke out on me or have a heart attack!!! He’s just not getting away from me this easy!!! 2 years ago

She got through the surgery fine. We had to wait for the cardiologist to clear her before they would proceed due to her previous history. (She had a quadruple by-pass in 1999) Ironically I had just taken her to the cardiologist this past week for her semi-annual check up and he had done an echocardiogram at the request of the Nephrologist. So it was much less hassle getting clearance for the surgery than it might have been.

She is out of surgery, ankle is set and foot in a cast and she high as a kite on pain meds. I will ask to see a social worker tomorrow when I go to visit her. There was no one available for to talk to me today. 2 years ago