53 posts tagged “life”
Who is ringing in the New Year with you? Who do you wish could be with you, but isn't there?
It's just the three of us this year. I like a quiet New Year. We're already in our PJ's and we're gonna play some games if Nathan ever gets his crap cleaned up off the living room floor. It's gonna take a while, though, he's doing it with a remote control fork lift. Hopefully he'll be done by midnight but I'm not holding my breath.
Then later, I've got a bottle of Chenin Blanc, DeWitte's got a bottle of Pinot Gris and Nathan's got a bottle of sparkling grape juice. We'd watch Dick Clark but I think he's dead this year. I don't know what we'll watch instead but at midnight we'll light some fireworks but this year we won't be burning any Christmas trees, we'll save that for when our friends are here.
It's weird, about the Christmas Trees, they must be treating them with some kind of chemical or something because they just don't burn like they used to. Stupid safety measures. Who wants a Christmas Tree that doesn't go up in a flaming inferno in less than three seconds?
I hope you have a really Happy New Year...Bring it on, I say, this last year was a total bust, the new one can't be any worse.
Just this last month we caught a possum, who not only played dead but smelled dead, too, a raccoon that DeWitte and Nathan tried to keep, the little hissing, vicious thing that it was. I had to put my foot down on that one. He might look like a cute little bandit but he'd take your face off in a minute. We also got a cat, which we let go because I think he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I bet he doesn't try to get a free meal from us again. Those were in the live trap. In the spring traps we got two rats that we told Nathan were mice, church mice, (That trap snapped right on that church mouses nose. Bam, like that..slapping his hands across his face....That was the reenactment. I didn't get close enough, myself, to see.) so he wouldn't go to school and announce the fact that we caught rats. Kids don't know when to shut up. Like that little girl that went to school last year and announced to the class that they had roaches at their house. Better to keep some things to ourselves.
This year has been particularly bad. Nathan called down and said he heard something in the ceiling in his room. We went up to investigate and it sounded like whatever was up there was bowling for dollars, they were that loud. Seriously, I didn't know that critters played sports but they were playing them over Nathan's ceiling. Over the bathroom upstairs it sounded like someone was having a bar fight and finally, enough was enough. We called an exterminator but they couldn't help us. They did tell us that, because of the time and sounds we heard, that they thought it was squirrels...add another critter to the list, and if we wanted, we could call a company that would take the walls apart and get rid of the critters, for only $100-$300 a pop. Since it sounded like an entire critter village had moved in, that didn't seem like an option.
DeWitte set some traps in the attic but that didn't have any effect and since Nathan had been sleeping in our room because the sound decibel was under "jet plane" (our critters have very active social lives.), not to mention the nightmares he was having about squirrels jumping him in the back yard, it was time for drastic measures. Drastic measures = poison. DeWitte laced the attic like those two old ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace and we waited. At first it seemed like they were more active but I think they were fighting over the bait. After a couple days, though, things got quiet. After a couple more days, the smell came. A couple days after that came the flies. It's kind of like living in Amityville Horror but without all the ghosts.
What are some ways you save money?
Submitted by Pixiemom.
Child labor....the quality might not be up to professional snuff but they really are cheap. A couple of cookies and they're good to go.
Wow, did we get a lot done this four day weekend. We got the floor stripped of the linoleum underlayment stuff, all the water damage on the floor under it repaired/replaced and got the new floor down.
We bought irregular flooring and saved a ton of money. (It was under $500 for everything, the floor, the underlayment and the tools.) It's called "tavern grade" and has short pieces and long pieces all mixed together in a box. I like the way it looks, more rustic and fits the house (everything is irregular!). It was so cheap and looks so nice I'd consider doing the entire downstairs.
Now I just need to get and paint some baseboards and some air vents (I don't need to paint those.) and I'm done with that part. Next....strip a hundred years of paint off of the kitchen windows and trim...yeah.
(Pay no attention to those curtains..they aren't staying. I just don't want bumpass or his dogs to spy on us. I think I'll go with white when I get the new ones...let in more light.)
What are some ways you save money?
Submitted by Pixiemom.
Do it yourself. But that's only if you don't mind losing your sanity instead.
Show us what you're thankful for.
Me, standing holding a bag of unshelled mixed nuts in one hand and rifling through the utensil drawer with the other..
"Shoot, I think packed up the nut cracker with all the other kitchen non-essentials..how am I gonna get into my Brazil nuts now?"
DeWitte, "I've got some pliers you can use. Let me get them and wash them off."
Me, "Great idea!"
Nathan, "Yeah, that is a great idea, those are the same pliers he used to open and close the sewer pipe when he snaked it out yesterday."
Me, "Hey, DeWitte?! Never mind!"
Les Nessman, "The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement!"
Mr. Carlson, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!!!"
From "Turkey Drop"...Best episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, ever. (Note to self, buy the DVD)
I just heard a news lady describe a crooks record as being a "laundry list" of offenses. That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. A laundry list isn't long, a laundry list is short.
1. wash clothes
2. dry clothes
3. put clothes away
See, that's short. If they want a long list they should maybe make it revolve around a grocery list, or the number of houses on sale around here. How about the stuff you'd have to pack for a two week vacation, the number of shows that DeWitte records on the DVR, the number of times Nathan can't find his shoes or how many times you hear the word "WHAT?" in our household...those would all be really long lists and make much more sense than "laundry list" ever would.
Show us what the weekend has in store for you.
