YOU MUST SEE THIS

http://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/index.html Copy/paste this link, then when it comes up select eagle cam, then select view live video. Yesterday, these babies were still in the eggs. I could spend all day watching this. (The electric company has set up cameras in the nesting areas of several species but the eagles are the ones that I keep coming back to ... they are amazing creatures. As I was watching just now, she was feeding the new hatchlings..amazing. )

Mom's leaving again

 

This is the look I get every time they smell the perfume. They know the only time I wear it is when I am headed out, and they aren't invited. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary since the day we got Cosmo..the beagle mix. If you weren't reading then, I will get you caught up with his story. We had Harley and frankly he was a little bored being the only canine in the house. Throughout my life I had had single dogs and had twosomes. The twosomes always seemed a little happier so S2 and I decided that we would sort of, kind of, maybe a little bit, look around for a second dog. He wanted BIG and I didn't. Our shepherd Boz was 130 pounds and had paws the size of hubcaps. I was ready for something a little more manageable. I started looking. I even visited a few from one of the local rescue agencies. They were all cute but S2 and I kept finding little things about them we didn't really like. One was a little too hyper, one was too young, and they were all cute so we knew they would find homes as this rescue is a no kill rescue. Looking online I found a "courtesy" post on Pet-Finder from a rescue group in the next city over. He was cute and we went off that morning to see him. I will be truthful that when I first saw him, I was a little underwhelmed. He was just laying in a gated area at the rescue "store" and really didn't have a ton of personality. We took him for a walk and when we came back he barked and barked and barked at the store cats. We have a cat. Anyway, we told the people we would think about it and went to get some lunch. As we were eating S2, kept badgering me that we HAD to get him..."Mom, didn't you see how sad his eyes were"? Well one thing led to another and we did go back. The lady then told me his story. He and his "sister" (they were identical in appearance so they were thought to be litter mates) had been found wandering, very hungry, and shivering, in the streets of an Amish community about 45 minutes from here. Apparently they see a lot of "dump dogs" in this area. The Am's use them for breeding then when they are too old or not interested any longer, they just take them to the county line and dump them. That county has no fines for dumping so it is easy for them to dump and leave. Coz and his sister were picked up by the dog warden and taken to that county's pound that gasses the dogs if they are not adopted in 48 hours. This rescue group went in, did a sweep of the place and rescued 9 dogs that were scheduled for the gas chamber in 45 minutes. Little Coz and his buddies were literally 45 minutes from dying. This explained the look in his eyes. He was lost. He had no home and probably never really had any human interaction. Well, that did it, I was hooked. I wish I could tell you the change in him since that day. We brought home a dog that didn't wag his tail, when there was a noise he would go hide beside a piece of furniture and just stare at us. He ate like he was starving, and other than barking at the cat, he never made a peep. Fast forward one year and he is an entirely different pup. He runs, plays, he laughs (no I am not crazy, he does), he has learned how to play. He didn't even know the simplest of dog games like playing tug with a sock or chasing a ball. He had to learn ALL of those things, along with not peeing whenever he felt like it. It was a transformation that is nothing short of amazing. He sleeps on our bed with us (if you think its gross, oh well, get over it) and is the most gentle loving dog I have ever had, and I have had many in my life. I had always heard that when you rescue a dog, they know it. I wasn't sure really what that meant till this little guy. He adores us. He has a light in his eye now, that he did not have when we met him. He is absolutely the perfect dog. I am glad I listened to my son. He knew what he was seeing.

Will you be able to keep this one clean?

Or at least that is what BigD said in a very snarky, shitty way. Needless to say I held my tongue because two of the spawn were in the room, but that comment really landed on a raw nerve. I have intimated here before that he is very "old school", you know, men go to work, women cook, clean, do laundry, raise kids, always look presentable, and anything else circa 1945. He seems to forget that I am also working ~~two jobs~~ just to keep our heads above sea level. The only time he “helps” is when he is pissed and then he is a true joy to have helping me. (Insert very loud sarcastic tone in that last sentence) His idea of cleaning is moving ALL of the furniture AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK to vacuum under everything, this is on top of daily vacuuming -3100 sq.ft of house) using the floor scrubber daily(830 square feet of tile here), never having any laundry in a dirty pile, bathrooms are to be squeaky clean on a daily basis (we have 3), before anyone retires for the night, all blankets used in the evening (none are used by me as I am usually working job #2 and not lounging watching TV), are folded and put away, the windows are always washed (we have 48 of them), all the wood is ALWAYS polished (we have enough wood in this house to personally claim the destruction of at least two forests, sorry, I came to the conservation movement later in life), and well, the list goes on and on. I agree. I would LOVE to have all of the above be true but I have yet to see where it is written that it all has to be done by ME. I have pointed out to him that I WORK and it is hard for me to do all of the above. It goes in one ear and out the other. Today is not a happily married day. Sadly, I have been having more and more of them lately. He reminds me of a saying my mom used to say when I was little…feel free to insert boy where it says girl… There was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very very good, when she was bad, she was horrid. (Yes, forehead and horrid do too rhyme!) Anyway, lately BigD has been horrid….and he doesn’t even have a curl! Shit he barely has hair. So..do you like my new fridge?? I decided to get the black because: 1) White would get dirty looking (trust me, with all these males around, and all the digging in the yard, working on cars et cetera it wouldn’t take long for it to get grimey) and BigD would have just one more thing to bitch about . 2) I have been told the stainless is really hard to keep free of smudges (see #1) 3) For once, I wanted to get something that would make me happy. I always cave to what others want and I decided it was time for me to think about me. So there.

got a spare fridge?

I have been in Mom mode for the past few days. S1 and S2 are on spring break and since both are broke (and I am evil and refuse to pay for them to go party somewhere) they have been hanging around here...which truthfully would be great except for a few kinks in the chain. S1 came home, not so much because he loves his mommy so much, but mostly because he has the flu and needed to be pampered. Honestly though, it is what I do best so I am happy to oblige. So flu is a negative but having mom wait on you, make soup for you, check to make sure you are comfy...well, those are all pluses. S2 is home, but I have hardly seen him. Many of his old high school friends are home on break too so he has been out visiting. Except this morning. About a year ago he got pulled over for not coming to a complete stop at a red light. In his defense, he was in a bad part of a city 20 miles north of us, it was night, he was lost and he was scared shitless. He was thrilled when he got pulled over, at least THAT guy had a gun that would protect him. Anyway, the officer was kind enough to write the ticket for a benign event, bringing it down from a moving violation (that would have raised S2's insurance) to just not having his license on his person (which he did but like I said the office was cutting him a break, since the ticket was already started, he had to change it to something less "horrible" than gliding through a red light in scaretown.) So fast forward a year later, this has been bounced from that county to this county and back to that county again and we get a letter last week that there is an arrest warrant out for my sweet boy. HOLY SHIT. We got in touch with the court people, and this morning S2 went to scaretown (though in daylight it is less scary) and faced the judge. BigD went too. Kind of a bonding morning. The judge was delightful, laughed with S2 (who was wearing khaki's a light brown shirt with a thin gold stripe, and a gold tie. He looked awesome. I am sure the judge appreciated the way S2 looked as looking around, most of the characters that were there for one thing or another, had their pants saggin to the knees, and loaded with logo wear, sideways hats...well you get my drift). Mr. Judge, waived the court cost, waived the fines, and told S2 if he takes 48 cans of food to the local food-back, he would be a free man :). Sounds good to me. I really didn't want my handsome 19 year old becoming one of Bubba's bitches on the inside of the barbed wire fence. Now to continue with this morning. When they left I went to the kitchen to get a frozen waffle and noticed that something was dripping in the freezer, and the rug in front of the fridge was soaking wet. Upon further inspection, my keen eye noted that there was NO ice in the large ice dispenser, it had all melted. Then my sharp mind deduced that if the ice melted to water, the frozen food might be nonfrozen. CRAP. So, I spent the morning cooking all the thawed meats, chickens, fishies, and anything else that needed to be cooked before refreezing. I delved into the bowels of the basement, plugged in the old freezer and now all that cooked food is hopefully safe till I get my new fridge. Now, this also could be a negative (like the flu) but I am choosing to not worry about where the hell I am getting the bucks to buy a new fridge/freezer....instead I am going to enjoy the fact that, hell, I'm getting a new fridge! I have hated this one since the day we bought it 20 years ago. It is a side by side and the freezer portion isn't even wide enough to contain a pizza....so good riddance!! I will hop on over to the local homeydepot and pick out a new chillation device for chez nuts. BigD picked out the last one, so I told him I get to pick out this one. I guarantee you, he will not like it. I am staying simple. He wants bells and whistles. I want energy efficient. He wants expensive looking. I want black. He wants white. (I may have to give on that one as our dishwasher is white and our oven...that will die any day now too...is also white) I don't like the white though because over time, it yellows and looks dirty. Input anyone?? So if I have been quiet it is because of work, a sick kid that needs nurturing, and cooking enough food to feed all of you dinner tonight along with getting all of our tax stuff ready for today and filing the ever annoying FAFSAaaaaaa that needs to be done to determine how much the college munchkins will get in financial assistance. Boring post. If I were you, I wouldn't even bother reading it. (I probably should have put that as the first line:)

organ donation

I am so sad to hear about Natasha Richardson. My heart breaks for her children. All I can hope is that somehow the family had the strength to donate her viable organs. She was young and otherwise healthy. What a horrid decision to have to make at a time of devastation. Please tell your family tonight what your thoughts are about donating your organs. Whether you are pro or con, it is a conversation that needs to be had by every family.

Headlines

New York's attorney general says AIG paid bonuses of $1 million or more each to 73 employees, including 11 who have left the company. This was the headline that just came through on my newsreel. I am so pissed I can hardly stand it. Those bastards. I wish them pestilence and death. Am I exaggerating? Not much. Here I work my ass off every day--working two jobs--to make enough to keep our family from defaulting on everything. Is anyone offering me a bailout? Is anyone tossing me a million dollar bonus. Fuck no. I have no idea how these people can justify these bonuses and sleep at night, knowing what is behind their blood money. I am betting they are laughing at the rest of us, as they sail away on their yachts, to their "other" island home, where the help will be waiting with an umbrella drink to enjoy while they add up their deposits in their checkbooks. I am not crying "oh poor me", I am SCREAMING..you bloodsuckers are screwing with the rest of us and getting away with it! How have we as a nation let this happen??? People, if you think this doesn't effect you, you are wrong...it effects all of us. How can AIG and all the others like them, do this? Do they not know that WE CAN SEE THEM..are they so powerful they are feeling omnipotent? Honestly, I am so upset right now, I could eat an entire chocolate cake. In under 10 seconds. BUT..I think to salvage my weight loss effort, I may send a few emails to my congressman and senator, to see if they have anything brilliant to say. Please join me in my outrage, belly up to the bar, and contact the representatives in your area and voice your outrage that we are being screwed, ever so unpleasantly, right up the wazoo.

my new mantra

I bought this before Christmas and have been procrastinating its perfect placement since that time. I decided over the front door, at the bottom of the stairs we come down every morning, would be the perfect place for it to be read...daily. I need more of this philosophy in my life.

 

Rating your caretaker

As I eluded to in my last, brief, yet very descriptive post, I was sidelined with a gastrointestinal plague earlier in the week. I was IN BED for 36 hours. The last time I did that was 19 years ago and was rewarded with a snot filled rugrat for my trouble. This time, not only tortured my body, but also my spirit. I am not a good sick person. I get cranky when I don’t feel well. All I wanted to do was sleep between dashes to the el inodoro. I was even too sick to read and watching TV was getting boring. Plus since I am on a 90-day-new employee probation at the new job, and had to take a sick day, when they are asking a minimum of 2-3 hours of overtime per day, and 8 additional hours on the weekend, I was worried the intestinal queen was going to have to go job hunting. To say they were not happy with me when I called, would be an understatement. She made it perfectly clear that EVERYONE is to work these additional hours because the company landed a big account and wants to look good. Okay. The boss in ME is thinking..hmm, how long were you in negotiations with LARGE MEDICAL CENTER? Were you caught completely unaware that you would need staffing to cover the ginormous increase in work volume. You do know that people are looking for work all over don’t you? I know this is a job that requires special training but there are tons of people out there that can do this. So , they are sending out nastygrams to all of us that work there, telling is we have to put in mandatory OT. I called and tried to nicely explain that I am new, and accepted the part-time position for a reason. I have NO desire to work for them 7 days a week as I have a family and another job and would actually like to do a load of laundry now and then. Their answer……tough. Too bad. You have to do this. So, I am thinking I may want to keep looking for another position. (But then the realist in me looks at the checkbook and sends a shock to my lazy ass and tells me to shut the hell up and get back to work..who turns down work in this economy…et cetera. I just need a freakin break already…and the 36 hours in bed this week do not count, as I was not having fun). So actually none of that has anything to do with the title of my post. What I planned on expounding upon was how some people are natural caregivers and some are not. I was born taking care of people and animals. I believe my time on earth is to be the one that takes care of everyone else. I didn’t pick this job, it seemed to pick me. I am the one that goes out in my sox, into wet grass,(AND I HATE WET GRASS) to snag the collar of all the random dogs and cats that find their way to my yard. It causes mad chaos amongst my menagerie when they know I am outside with “a potential intruder” animal. I usually end up in my car returning the animal to the stupid owner that lets it wander aimlessly all over and poop in my yard. There are a couple of frequent fliers that know their way home so over time we have learned to just wave/wag to each other and move on. But, that isn’t what my title is about either. See, by Wednesday, when I still was having monstrous belly pain, it actually made me cry, I got S3 on bus and went back to the bed for a minute to recuperate (sitting watching for a bus for 3-4 minutes can be exhausting you know), and when I laid down BigD heard me cry. This is not something I do lightly, or often. In between gentle sobs I told him I was worried about getting fired, we would starve to death, lose our home, have the kids repossessed, and have to live in squalor-with toothless neighbors. He insisted on taking a sick day to stay home and care for me. This was 7:30 in the morning. Ya coulda knocked me over with a feather. But hell, who am I to argue? I had visions of warm chicken broth being served, maybe a little soothing back rub, or at the very least sympathy. I told him I had to pop back into my office to send off some work I had done and that I would be back. At that point, he fell back to sleep, and slept till I woke him at 11:30. I told him how touched I was by his concern and asked him to please keep his snoring down a tad. Later, he said he would run to the store and get something for himself and S3 to have for dinner. I had informed him that the thought of buying food, much less cooking and SMELLING it would probably cause my death. He ran to the bank for me (oh, but he forgot to deposit my check so I am waiting for some checks I wrote to bounce now, adding a $39 fee each time) and then he went to the store. The following is a list of the items he brought home: 1.) 3 boxes of instant pudding (none of which are flavors I like-but he didn’t know that, we have only been married almost 28 years~~but hey HE really likes pistachio). 2.) A raw salmon filet (yum, when one has been sick, nothing says I love you like raw fish) 3.) Milk. ( I haven’t had milk since I was 6 and was forced to drink it, plus there is that pesky lactose intolerance thing I have had ALL MY LIFE) 4.) Toasted macaroon cookies (coconut is good for hematochezia isn’t it?) 5.) Lets not forget the large bag of tortilla chips. They will come in handy . When S3 asked him what he got for dinner, I saw the look on his face that said “Oh, shit, I didn’t even think about dinner” but was came out of his mouth was “Oh, I thought we could think about that at dinner time” (it was 5:00 then…did he mean dinner time next week?) So, I turned around, walked back to the bedroom. S3 ended up making himself a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches, self sufficient lad that he is. As for BigD, all I know is that when I came downstairs the next morning, the entire pack of macaroons was gone. Don’t even get me started on what the kitchen looked like.

vomit

and other extreme bodily malfunctions...since Monday...send help. (or at least advice seeing how I think my doctor is a turd and I don't trust her)--and yes, I am getting a second opinion from a GI specialist next week that I DO trust. Send me your good vibes. (Shit. I hate it when I am even too sick to make a decent post other than whining.)

IWONIWONIWONIWON

Thanks to a group of "ladies", and one lucky bastard, at the blog below, I am the winner of a contest. Do you have any idea how often this happens to me? Pretty much never. Though I did get struck by lightening once...but I guess that probably wasn't actually a good/winning type thing. Anyway, if you like scandalously loose, lunch drinking, wild women, you will love my new BFF's. Hey ladies..bottoms up! www.scandaloushousewife.net Oh....and if anyone can tell me why, when I put links like this on my blog, they do not highlight, please help. I have found that people are too freaking lazy to copy/paste and would prefer a more direct click. **** UPDATE*** MUCHO thanks to the lovely and brilliant DD--I tried what she recommended and it freaking worked. Dear DD...you are very smart and Mr DD is a lucky bastard also. (I never realized that phrase would not only win me shit, but also fit so appropriately in so many places!)

Inappropriate for a religious day

But I had to share. Usually my brother sends me dumb emails that are degrading and disgusting and borderline on his perversion with boobs. Today, he finally sent me something that made me laugh. I have no idea how to get this so you can just click on it and it goes there....so you will need to copy the stupid thing into your browser...I promise that extra 2 seconds of your time will be worth it :) (I scanned for viruses because of brothers boob perversion and this is free of cooties). http://webmail.aol.com/41757/aol/en-us/mail/get-attachment.aspx?uid=1.23242540&folder=Inbox&partId=4&saveAs=HoleInOne.wmv

Who doesn't love Target

Whether you pronounce it TAR-GET or my preferred TAR-JAY (ala french), either way, there is a clever writer holding a contest for her 400th post. Head on over and check her out....and while you're at it, enter her contest. http://chasedbychildren.typepad.com