TV Vortex

Tuesday Night I sat down and found that of the 300 channels we have there was NOTHING on. As I was scrolling through the on-screen-guide The Biggest Loser was playing in the background. As the people began to tell their stories so they could "get to know each other" I began to cry. Seriously. WTF? Some of the stories were truly heart wrenching. Abby? The teacher who lost her husband and 2 little kids in a car accident? OMG. I was sucked in. I have a feeling I'll be watching this show the rest of the season.
The one thing that really annoyed me? Jillian. And to a lesser extent, Bob. And their need to SCREAM at the contestants. And YELL SWEARS at them. Really? When was the last time you felt motivated by someone screaming in your face? Motivated to retaliate, maybe. Jillian is a little self righteous. I don't know if I can handle watching her all season. But I will try.
Did anyone else find themselves crying during this episode???

Dial me a Dinner

Phone call I received from F:

F: "Hey! I'm on Pioneer Woman and I'm looking for a post for stuffed peppers. Does she have something like that?"

Me: "Um, I don't know. Go to her new website Tasty Kitchen and I'm sure you can find one there."

F: "Her what? Where?"

At this point I had to open her Blog to make sure I wasn't going crazy, and that there is in fact a link for Tasty Kitchen.

Me: "On the left hand side, a link for Tasty Kitchen. You should find something there."

F: "OH Tasty Kitchen!! Got it! Ok, thanks!!!"

Mind you, F has been attempting to make stuffed peppers since day one of us meeting each other. The last time ended in a huge pot of water with saturated saggy peppers that went out in the trash before I could even asses the situation.
I love that he immediately thinks of the Pioneer Woman as a reference for good food. Even if he does complain that it has too much butter or is too rich. She is still his go-to gal.
Thank You Ree.
And I've already put in a Christmas wish list order for her new cookbook. And yes, I'm willing to wait to have it until Christmas even though it becomes available 3 DAYS after our 1 year anniversary.

The Gift Card just got BETTER

Best Headline, EVER.

Battling syphilis ... with Wal-Mart gift cards

Just Call me Grandma

I went to the doctor. I told her of my issue with my manky ankle. She prescribed, Compression Stockings.

Just call me Grandma D.H.

Well, at least they come in colors, so I can pass them off as Trouser Socks.

I am only 35!! Not 80!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where they find the "Guests" For Jerry Springer

Thank You Sassy Two Socks.
This new website has brightened my day.
A whole blog dedicated to the People of Walmart, or as I like to refer to it, White Trash World.

Please shower after exiting.

8 Tracks and LPs

My friends from High School informed F and I this weekend that we are "out of touch" with today's music scene.

We were at a wedding and they would get up and go dance, waving or yanking us out onto the floor with them.

"Who IS this???" I'd yell over the music.

"WHAT???!!! This is POPin Hot Rockin!!!!!"(totally made up that name, because i can't even remember what they said, on any of the several occasions.)

"WHO????????????"

"You gotta get this on your iPod!!!" exclaimed my highly intelligent, highly intoxicated friend.

"We don't have iPods." F and I admitted in unison.

*HORRIFIED GASP!!!!!* from the entire table.

"You guys live under a rock?????????????"

F and I are both 80's babies. Throw in some early 90's from when I was in college, and you have my music mix. Well, aside from the stuff I grew up listening to because of my parents, but that's another blog entry. At home, work and in the car I listen to a radio station whose tag line is, "All the music the rap station doesn't play." So there are new songs, new groups, but none that was blaring out of the speakers at the wedding.

So, in the spirit of being more hip, I cued up the "hip hop urban" radio station on my computer at work, the "rap station" my station refers to, and tried to listen. It lasted for 10mins before I muted it. Then I forgot I'd muted it, and turned it back on, only to mute it again in a few seconds. I can't do it, I can not listen to this station. I highly dislike it. I USED to listen to this station, but then their morning show just got out of hand, and the music just got too rappy, and I called it a day several years ago.

I'm afraid I'm classified as "Easy Listening".
What was that song a few years ago about a mom who thinks she's hip but is still living in the 90's? Yeah, that's us.

Another One Bites the Dust

I haven’t been reading Blogs for very long, but I have become attached to a certain few and in fact have very little time or inclination to find new people to read. Not to say that I haven't. I celebrate the day I found April's Reign and Big Mama. Since I’ve began reading I’ve seen 5 go the way doo-doo bird. Most recently I’d found my way to Wind In Your Vagina, a dad’s prospective of day to day life with the kids. Just as I was getting through his back logs, he went all privatized. The biggest blow to my reading line up was Such Great Heights, known by those who loved her as Clink. Every now and again I’ll cruise over to her site to see if she’s back to posting, and once in awhile I’ll get a small hit, but nothing daily. No dissection of her wedding day. No new from-the-nose-down pictures. Did she start a new Blog? I don’t know. It happened in the past; she changed providers, or URLs. Same thing happened with [redacted] when his life changed via a break-up. He’s been posting on the new Blog for about 3 years now. Hell, I don’t even remember what his old blog was.
And let’s not forget The Company Bitch. She was my first. She just stopped. No warning, like Clink. No clue to the new site, like [redacted]. Just one post that left you wanting more. And now? Now I’ve lost Each of the Two. She was back from “theater camp” one day, promising to tell us all that had gone down and all that was to come with the ever looming wedding, and then:

Blog not found
Sorry, the blog you were looking for does not exist. However, the name eachofthetwo is available to register!


Whaaaaaaaaaa????? Are you kidding me??? I can’t find new ones fast enough to replace the old ones. Blogs are like good books that you never want to end. You want to continue to know how their lives evolve and change. It’s like someone ripped out the last chapter. There have been days when I toy with the idea of stopping. When I have nothing to give. When I want to share, but know it is just too personal to do so.
So I know how they feel. Sometimes, it is just easier to grab your coat and leave when nobody is looking.
Problem is, they ARE looking. Looking and waiting to see you again.

Cash, Check, But Not Money Orders, Please

Did you know that Western Union Money Orders are not considered cash? Did you know that Western Union Money Orders are easily duplicated and forged, thus making them less trust worthy? Especially because you can get them ANYWHERE?
Did you know that because of the forgery risk that your bank/credit union will put a 5 day hold on the funds?
No?
Me either.
This is what my Kindly Credit Union Teller told me on Saturday when I went to deposit the rent from our Tenant. (he’s signed on for another six months, but that’s another blog entry.)
I usually deposit via ATM, so this was the first I’d heard of the 5 day hold. I’d always assumed that since a money order has to be purchased with cash that meant it was as good as money. Not so. Western Union money orders are viewed as checks and must go through a clearing process same as a check. When I told the Kindly Credit Union Teller that I had been making that deposit every month for about a year now, he got flustered and told me he would have to speak to his manager. His manager backed his story. And thusly I was told it would be best to have our tenant pay by Postal Money Order because those are the only REAL money orders and are much less likely to be forged.
Learn something everyday.

However, what I did not like our Kindly Credit Union Teller telling me is that, “I checked your balance and I can’t see where having this on hold would be a problem for you.” Um, sorry? How is that your call? You don’t know what my finical situation is and you should really refrain from commenting on it. I appreciate you explaining the whole reason for the hold, I do. But please, keep your comments about how my current bank balance should cover our finical situation for the next 5 days to yourself; because that is truly not something you should be expressing your views on. It’s just not.

The French Do It

It was dark out, the rain was misting, I was tired, F was tired, but we still needed to load up some firewood for the camping trip. I slipped on F's tennis shoes and clomped out to the back yard to help. 10 mins later I was back in the kitchen finishing up "pre cooking" the bacon for the coming camp breakfast. It was hot inside the house, and I was glad I had changed into my "wife beater" and shorts earlier. But as hot as I was, something cold was on my leg. I did the "shake it off" leg jiggle, but that didn't help. I did a few more things in the kitchen and realized that the "cold" was moving on my leg. I looked down and saw a................snail, without the shell.

"Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out." I told myself as I looked around the disaster area of a kitchen to find something to remove the snail with. I grabbed a used paper towel out of the trash can and plucked said snail from my calf.

Apparently instead of throwing it in the trash I should have rubbed it about my face and neck, who knew???

Fort Knox: The Library of a Teenager

My 14yr old niece is heavily into the Twilight Series. Big shocker right? SES borrowed the books from her and having read them, told me how great they were and that I needed to read them too. Since I love to read, when the mood strikes, I figured what the heck? Maybe it would be a little Anne Rice lite kind of reading.
When I saw my niece recently I poised my query, “Hey, K, can I borrow your Twilight books?”
K without missing a beat: “I don’t lend those out anymore ever since my friend Nicole never gave me the one she borrowed back.”
Completely. Dead. Serious.
ES and I both gasped.
ES: “What? You won’t let your own AUNT borrow your books?”
Me: “Really! Geez.”
K: “Yes. Really.”
ES and I both laughed, “WOW.”
ES: “Dang, your Aunt is like 25 yrs older than your friend! And far more responsible! I can’t believe you said no!!”
Me: “No kidding.”
K: “I might reconsider.”

What the? Cold man. She was cold. And hardcore.
But I was also kind of proud of her. She stuck up for what is hers, and wasn’t going to be bullied.

K: “Ok, you can borrow them. But you better NOT WRECK THEM!!!”

Ok, so maybe it was more the guilt rather than bullying.

Me: “Thank you! I know how to treat books; I grew up in a library after all!”

I left their house without the books.

Or maybe, she just knows how to play the game.

Bad Combo

White Blouse + Bloody Nose = Tide Pen EMERGENCY!!!

I don't understand why the Tide Pen leaves that weird ring after it drys on some fabrics but not on others.

Design flaw.

But still better than a bloody stain on my blouse.

EPT, Not so 'E'

I was watching “I didn’t Know I was Pregnant” because YAY! We finally got cable back and I was flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch out of the 250 channels we have; plus Miss Molly had mentioned watching it and it peaked my interest( i think she did, can't find the post.). The show is truly amazing. How these women have little to no symptoms or weight gain, or any of the things a “normal” pregnancy would experience. Some of it, yeah I think is denial, none of them said the felt the baby move, how is that possible? And I totally felt for them when they went into labor unbeknownst to themselves. How much would you freak the hell out if you were having that kind of pain out of no where? I know I would. Anyway, I was flipping between that and another show when F comes up out of the basement.

F: “You know I’ve been listening to what you’re watching.”
Me: *dazed as I try to refocus my attention on him* “What??”
F: “This show you are watching, about the women.”
Me: *still dazed* “Yeah??”
F: “Are you trying to tell me something???”
Me: *pause* “wha? It’s just a show I’m watching.”
F: “You sure?”
Me: *SIGH*
F chuckles to himself as he turns and goes back down into the basement.

Now, really, would I watch a show about not knowing about being pregnant if I KNEW I was pregnant? (i am not pregnant, trust me on this one)

He seriously likes to just mess with me for the sake of messing with me.

Go AWAY!

I'm having one of THOSE days where everything and everyone one is annoying me. I was out of the office for the afternoon yesterday and came back this morning to a note on my chair. I have no problem with the note on my chair, "Can we talk about this? Thanks B" attached to a work request. The work request is WRONG, as per usual from B. B seems to have problems following directions. And no matter how many times I walk B through the process, it is still wrong. Knowing that my irritation with B was due in part to simply ME, I decided I would wait to go talk to B until I'm come down off the irritation interstate. B however decided that "talking about it" was no longer up to me and pops into my office.
"HEY!!!!!!! You get my note??????!!!!!"
(uh no, is that what this extra padding on my chair is??? your note???)
"Yep, but I'm in the middle of something else right now."
"Oh. Well, when you get a chance, come see me."
(not if i don't have to!)
"Yeah, ok."

Why do people assume that because you leave a note to come see you, it is implied that is HAS to been immediately??? The note did not say ASAP!!! or SOON!!! MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH!!!
You have put the ball in my court and when I am ready to serve it back to you, trust me, you'll know. Next time, don't leave a note. If you must talk to me, then wait, and HAND it to me. With a, "I think we need to go over this." Which will be received much better. No matter how my day is going.

But for now, GO AWAY!

An Open Letter to AmEx

Dear American Express:
Until recently, I never counted myself as one of you card holders. When F and I joined Costco*, part of the deal was getting one of your cards. Since AmEx is the ONLY credit card Costco* will accept. Not too long ago you sent F (the account is in his name) a letter stating that due to the current economic climate, you were reducing our credit limit. In your letter you stated that if we wrote and asked you the reasoning behind why you did this, you would tell us. So I hopped on my computer and fired off a short letter requesting this information. In my rush, I transposed our house number. You sent a letter, to the “new” address, which happened to be our neighbor, confirming the “address change” on the Costco AmEx, but wanted to know if we would also like to “change the address” on the “Blue” AmEx. With absolutely NO mention of the actual reason of my letter, the credit line reduction.
HUH????
Since the 30day window to obtain this information had passed, I filled out the “change of address” box on the next bill and sent it back. I am still waiting to receive a letter confirming the “address change” back to what it was originally.
During this waiting period we receive two identical letters concerning each AmEx card telling us, that once again, due to the “economic climate” you are INCREASING the APR.
I can’t help but see a pattern here concerning your reasoning skills. First, you seem to lack attention to detail. I write you a letter requesting information, and you change my address. You are quick enough (not really) to notice that we have 2 cards with you and want to know if the address for the second card needs to be changed. But you are NOT quick enough to send us ONE copy of a letter increasing our APR. I can see now where that increase is being put to use, mailing and printing costs.
Second, your reasoning behind increasing the APR seems to be decidedly short sighted. It is quite clear across the nation that people are losing jobs, homes, and are barely scraping by, but you decide now, NOW would be an EXCELLENT time to charge these same people more money. I feel it is my duty to point out the obvious, that these people do not have extra money to cover your increased APR.
I can see that I should have stuck with my past avoidance of you. My knowledge of you then was that you charged people a yearly fee for the privilege of paying off their card each month which, contrary to your marketing hype, is not accepted everywhere, and it IS best to leave home without it.
Consider this my first notice that once these cards are paid off, we will in fact be cancelling them. Because I’m sure you’ll take this to mean we want ANOTHER card with you and hence I’ll end up having to cancel 3 cards instead of just 2.

*Costco??? Get your head out of your ass and come to the realization that AmEx has got you (and your customers) over a barrel and they are all out of Vaseline.

Me chatting with my Mom did NOT put your Life in Danger

To the snarky lady who was purposely overtly loud in her query to the gas attendant at Costco the other night about whether or not you are allowed to use your cell phone while pumping gas, as you were eyeing me as I talked to my mom, YES, yes you are allowed. As the attendant, equally loudly answered, "There is NO law against it."as he stood and watched me like I was about to drive off without paying(which you can't do, since you have to pay first).
There is also no danger in doing it.
Brush up on your urban legends missy, Snopes.com.
Plus there was no sign posted telling you to not use your cell while pumping. If there had been, I would have hung up. Just like I make F turn the car off before pumping, because "they" say so.
One other thing, dancing about 3 to 4 feet away while waiting for your gas to pump, is NOT going to save your life in case me and my evil cell phone conversation with my mom goes array and ends up igniting the Costco gas station in an apocalyptic fire ball.
So THERE! nah!

I'm not Techie

I got the e-mail below. Has anyone heard of these people? Is this something I should do? Anyone?

Hello.This is Howard from feedmil.com, a new real-time search engine dedicated for fast feed discovery. I am writing to invite you to submit a short informative description about the feed you publish at http://adulthoodsucks.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default .At feedmil, we provide not only feed search but also individual feed pages so that users can conveniently examine more details about a feed before they decide whether or not to subscribe to it. For instance, your feed page at feedmil can be found at [redacted]. Description about your feed in your own words will be listed under the section titled "Words from the Author(s)" of your feed page at feedmil, and we believe that it will help your potential subscribers better understand what your feed is mainly about and what kind of feedback you want, possibly increasing the number of subscribers to your feed.You can send me any content you like to be displayed under "Words from the Author(s)" for your feed by replying to this email, and any kind of additional materials in the form of attachments in the reply email would be welcome as well.I sincerely thank you for all the great content you publish, which makes the service like ours possible. Your attention would be highly appreciated.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Howard The Feedmil Team

Monkey in the Middle

Before F arrived on the scene it was just me. Just me and my family. I may have been the go-between, between siblings, but it was rare. Now? Now I find myself caught in the middle often. A sibling will do something that negatively(perceived) affects F and I, and F will go into a tailspin of anger. Over the last few months he has been butting heads with SES. He does not let these "slights" go easily. He will fume about her and the "incident" and I will be caught in the middle defending her to him, or defending him to her. I do not like discord amongst those that I love.
I suppose before F arrived on the scene if there was discord among the family I tended not to notice. Assuming that everything was fine, and everyone got along fine. Once F arrived, my eyes were opened, I guess you could say, or people became more open, and I began to see that everything is not fine, and everyone does not get along.

I do not know what to do about being the monkey in the middle. Be it between F and the sibs or the sibs themselves. I am very concerned about how everyone perceives each other. Does SES think F is a lying loud mouth ass? Does F think SES is a nosey bitch (pretty much, yeah)?
I feel like I have to choose a side. But I can't because that is never a good idea. Someone always ends up hurt. And ususally, both sides have valid points.
How do you, my digital friends handle these kind of conflicts? Because right now, I just want to go home and mix myself a VERY large adult beverage and watch hours and hours of Clean House and Say YES to the DRESS! and pretend that a pretty dress and a shiny new kitchen will make everything all better.

Pants and Protest

Cops beat women protesting Sudan trouser ban

Group supporting female journalist arrested for wearing trousers in public

Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein, right, who faces 40 lashes on the charge of "indecent dressing," flashes a victory sign to her supporters as she enters the court in Khartoum on Tuesday. She is going on trial for wearing trousers in public, a violation of the country's strict Islamic laws.


Can I just tell you, that as I read this article, I was upset. Granted, I do not understand this, fear? of women wearing slacks, pants, trousers, whatever you may call them. I do understand that not long ago women did not wear "trousers" in the USA. And we've moved past this. I do understand that there are still some places where the dress code requires women to continue to adhere to this thought pattern. Dressing in this manner however is a matter of personal choice. You do not have to work at the place that requires you to wear a skirt and pantyhose. You can choose a religion that allows you to dress as you please. I know a woman, whom I in fact just reconnected with via FB, whose religion mandates that females wear skirts and/or dresses when out in public. She wore a skirt to school EVERY SINGLE DAY. She explained that in her version of the Bible (yes there are different versions, something I didn't know until like my late teens) it says that men and women are to dress differently. I don't remember all the logic behind it, but it made sense at the time. Especially since she stressed it was a choice to follow that dress code. But outside of that, No one is going to arrest you for wearing "trousers" in public. If this were the case, I would be flogged on a daily basis. I own exactly 3 skirts, and 4 dresses. I have never been much of a skirt/dress wearer. Even as a child. In fact, now that I think about it, neither of my sisters are skirt wearers, even though our mother, who is of the skirt & pantyhose era, is very much a skirt/dress wearer. I own at least 10 pairs of jeans, and 9 pairs of dress pants that I wear to work each week. Not all at once of course. I do not feel that because I wear "trousers" that I am less feminine. Wearing trousers does not change the fact that I am a female. That is all DNA, something I can not change. Wearing "trousers" can not now, nor will it ever, change that fact. When there are people in great need of food and clean water and proper housing and health care**, I find it extremely distressing that a government chooses to put resources into policing a dress code("public order police") instead of helping its people. I do not believe I will ever understand the oppression of woman based in religion which is then made into law. Every time I see an article like this I can't help but ask myself, "Why are they afraid of their women???"
Ignorance on my part, perhaps. If someone can explain it to me, I ask that you do. Politely of course. You can maybe make me understand, but you can never convince me.


**I do realize the US is not anywhere near blameless where any of these things are concerned. And I know we, as a nation, need to fix our own problems.

Deadly Habit

Turkey's Smoking Ban Takes a Hit
Enraged at having his cigarettes confiscated, a customer killed a restaurant owner in southwest Turkey. It's the first—and hopefully last—such casualty since a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants took effect. The Turks are heavy smokers, but similar bans have worked in places like Paris.

That is crazy insane!!! People have no self control anymore. It's a pack of cigs for pete's sake! Was it really worth the loss of a life and your own personal freedom?????
God help us all.

MORE PLEASE

That dinner F was going to make from Pioneer Woman via Pastor Ryan?? OMG, OMG!!!!! I had seconds!! He undercooked the pasta a little, F does not deviate from the recipe so when it said not to cook the pasta more than 5 mins, he didn't, even though it CLEARLY was not done. However, Bacon and Pasta?? My new love!!! Holy cow. After eating the just as yummy if not more so leftovers for lunch F tells me his plans for the "next time" he makes the dish: "I think next time, instead of the bacon, I'll use CHICKEN! (omg, why? i loves the bacon! i'm sure the chicken will be fine too though.) And less of the Parmesan cheese. It was too much. (uh, there's NEVER too much CHEESE! fewer onion, yes, but not the cheese!)
Days later and he is STILL patting himself on the back for this dish. It was good, very good. Now I want some, dang it! I don't dare ask for it though, because I'll never hear the end of it from Chef F.