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No TagsArchive for December, 2005
Well, I finally did it. I bought a domain name and webhosting package. I’ll be moving the blog over the next few days and will update with the new address when it’s up and running.
In other news, we had a wonderful and quiet Christmas. The boys recieved almost everything they wanted (I never get them everything off their lists because I don’t want to spoil them…or put myself in the poorhouse) and I enjoyed what will probably be the last Christmas that my youngest will believe in Santa. He’s already a bit suspicious of how the fat man and his eight tiny reindeer can deliver presents all over the world in a single night. The old ‘time/space continuum’ ploy isn’t going to work that much longer.
Ahh well. It has to happen sometime, right?
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| Greed: | Medium |
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| Gluttony: | Low |
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| Wrath: | Medium |
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| Sloth: | High |
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| Envy: | Low |
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| Lust: | Very Low |
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| Pride: | Low |
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Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz
H/T to Dax.
No Tags1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Don’t make me choose! Egg nog must have brandy in it and hot chocolate must have a candy cane melted in it. No exceptions!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Santa waits until the last possible fucking minute to wrap presents and usually gets less than 3 hours of sleep on Xmas. Santa swears every year that THIS year will be different, yet it never is.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White on the house, white and/or colored on the tree. Depends on my mood.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
I don’t hang mistletoe because I have no one to smooch underneath it.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
Usually Thanksgiving weekend if we’re doing an artificial tree. For real trees, we wait until the 2nd weekend in December.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Christmas dinner is usually just a replay of Thanksgiving, except with a ham instead of turkey. My favorite dishes are the side dishes, which include sweet potatoes, stuffing, baked macaroni and cheese, among others.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
The first Christmas I spent with my brother. My father was married before he married my mother and had 3 children. I’m not close with the other two kids, but I worshipped the ground my brother walked on.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don’t remember when I learned the truth…I think I just simply ‘grew out of it’. It certainly wasn’t a huge deal like most other people think it was. My oldest son doesn’t believe in Santa anymore, but he’s helping me keep the secret from my youngest son. I expect he’ll figure it out sooner rather than later.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
We sometimes did when I was a child, but I’m a horrible and mean mother and make my kids wait until Xmas morning.
10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him?
Santa gets whatever we feel like leaving for him. Usually it’s the typical homemade sugar cookies that we’ve spent all damn afternoon making. We also leave carrots for the reindeer.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it…until December 26, after which time, it can go the fuck away.
12. Can you ice skate?
Yes. I used to be able to skate fairly well but it’s been quite a few years.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Yes. One year, my aunt (who nicknamed me Doodlebug) gave me a beautiful gold watch/necklace in the shape of a ladybug. I had that until my house burned down and it’s one of the few pieces of jewelry that I’ve ever mourned losing.
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Trying to make sure that my kids don’t fall victim to the commercialization of it all. I limit them to a few gifts each…not the piles of gifts that a lot of kids demand these days.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
I’m an apple pie kinda gal.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Spending the day putting together the toys and kicking my childrens’ asses at their new video games.
17. What tops your tree?
A porcelain angel. The running joke in my family is that the angel is entirely too large for the top of the tree. She looks like a vulture sitting up there, but we love her.
18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving?
It must be the giving. Although, one of the best parts of single motherhood is buying your own Christmas gifts for the kids to give to you. I’m never disappointed LOL.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol?
It changes from year to year I think and is heavily influenced by whatever carols they are teaching in music classes at school. This year, my youngest has been singing “I Ain’t Getting Nuttin’ For Xmas” non-stop and it’s been stuck in my brain for weeks now.
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Yuuuuummmmmmy!
Quirks. Everyone has them, right? Some are cute and endearing…some just make you say “What the fuck?”. So here’s my attempt to start the next world wide web meme: List the ways in which you are just a little bit ‘touched in the head’.
Here’s mine:
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1. I am very fussy about my java. I simply can NOT drink coffee out of a white ceramic mug…I swear, it tastes ‘different’. The mug has to have a dark inside. I MUST have half and half…not milk. My motto: Life is too short to drink bad coffee.
2. I willingly get up at 4am every single day. I need a few hours of peace and quiet before I can face the world…or my children.
3. I can’t see the point of spending $10.00 on one pair of underwear, yet think nothing of spending obscene amounts of money on computer parts or books.
4. I am a woman born without the cleaning gene. I don’t ever feel the need to clean…I usually smell it first. I DO clean, quite often in fact, but it’s not a biological imperative like it is for most women.
5. I am fascinated with planes of all shapes and sizes. Just don’t ask me to actually board one. I’ve flown twice when I was a preteen, but since gaining a sense of my own mortality, I’ve had a very pronounced fear of flying.
6. I am thoroughly convinced that I will win the lottery. I never actually play, mind you, but I WILL win.
7. I talk to myself all the time. That woman you saw in the car last week who looked like she was singing along to music was probably me, talking to my invisible friend. I also answer my own questions. Yes, I DO find that a little scary.
I’m not going to tag anyone but would love trackbacks to your posts if you decide to fess up and display your craziness for all the world to see.
No TagsThere are very few things that give me reason to become completely unreasonable, but Rob touched on a subject tonight that sends me past ‘unreasonable’ straight to ‘batshit CRAZY’. The topic is pedophiles and Rob provides links to places that I really shouldn’t visit just before bedtime. Personally, I get pretty wound up when I read about men or women who ‘only’ lust after children and have the nerve to feel victimized when they’re painted with the same brush as child molesters, who actually follow through on their urges.
[Lindsay] Ashford, an American expatriate living in the south of France, believes it is time the public learned pedophiles are different from child molesters in that they enjoy a romantic and emotional, but not always sexual, connection with children. He also believes it is time for a child rights movement that will give kids more say in how to live their lives. {link}
I hate to burst Ashford’s bubble, but as far as I’m concerned, a pedophile by any other name is STILL a pedophile. Even the ACLU ain’t jumping on this bandwagon…that oughta tell you something.
While I do agree with Rob that just thinking about sex with a child isn’t criminal, I just gotta say that there’s not a big leap between thoughts and action. How’s that saying go? “In for a dime, in for a dollar” or something like that? If you’re even thinking about it, you’ve got a problem. And I’m sorry but I make NO distinction between adults that rape children or adults that persuade children into sexual acts.
I’ve mentioned before that I seem to live in the convicted child molester vortex of the universe. I live in a town with a population of less than 3000, yet I have 5 of these animals living within a 1 mile radius. Yes, I realize that the justice system sometimes fucks up and people get wrongly accused or labeled. Now ask me if I’m willing to give ANY of them the opportunity to get within 100 feet of my kids. I can’t be held responsible for my actions if I find out someone is having ‘thoughts’ about molesting my children, nevermind what would happen if anyone were stupid enough to TRY IT.
Pedophilia IS a sexual disorder. The only known cure for it is a bullet in the head.
No TagsI guess I gave the impression in this post that I’m a dog snob or something, but that wasn’t my intention. Unlike cats, I love ALL dogs: large, small, yappy, serious, mixed breed or purebred…I am a dog woman through and through.
I’ve been lucky enough to have spent all of my life being owned by dogs and/or working with dogs. I believe that many dog people, such as myself, view the AKC as the worst thing in the history of domesticated animals. They preach conformation rather than breed health, temperment and usage. AKC registration has become synonomous with quality to people who don’t know any better. Under the AKC breed standards, we’ve ruined almost every single dog breed ‘officially recognized’ by them. You can’t buy a decent german shepherd anywhere in the United States anymore. Sure, they may LOOK like beautiful dogs, but between the health problems and temperment problems, you’re looking at spending thousands of dollars in vet bills or lawyer bills when the dog bites someone. The same thing goes for every popular dog breed that the AKC recognizes.
My point in the first post was that people are being conned into spending an assload of money on dogs with a fancy name, when you can go to any shelter or rescue group and find the same dog for a minimal adoption fee. Take the money that you’ll save and buy some fucking obedience classes if you’re so worried about the behavioral history of the dog. Anyone with a basic understanding of genetics will tell you that mixed breed dogs ARE usually healthier than purebred dogs. I totally understand that if you take a labrador retriever and breed it with a poodle (two of the MOST inbred and overbred dogs that exist today), you’ll get offspring that are far healthier than either of it’s parents. You MIGHT even get the low-allergen coat of the poodle combined with the happy-go-lucky attitude of the lab. Yes, the offspring will make wonderful pets…but WHY would anyone pay a breeder or petstore up to 10 times as much than they’d pay a shelter or rescue?
One email that I recieved attempted to explain to me that, since poodles don’t shed hair or dander, poodle crosses are better for allergy sufferers. She was told this by her breeder. I’m going to dispell that myth right now (and will wait patiently for all of the hate mail from the breeders/snake oil salesmen). I was a dog groomer and kennel manager for 5 years and can tell you from experience that ALL DOGS SHED. There is no such thing as a hypo-allergenic dog. Some dogs shed to a greater or lesser degree than others, but if it’s got hair or skin, it’s got dander. Allergic reactions have more to do with the allergy sufferer’s tolerance to the amount of hair and dander put off by each individual animal than with a supposed hypo-allergenic coat.
Another email expressed sadness over my ‘bitterness and dislike of hybrid dogs’. Firstly, I’m not bitter. I’m dumbfounded to realize that people are actually falling for the hype. I really can’t fathom it. Secondly, I don’t dislike dogs of any sort. But really, people. Let’s not call them ‘hybrid dogs’. They’re MUTTS, plain and simple.
And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with calling them what they are, except for the fact that people can’t get away with charging $1000 for a ‘mutt’.
No TagsA while back, I wrote about my neighbor who had her little boy go into fever induced seizures. I can’t find the damn post now, so to recap: the kid had been running a fever for 2 days, couldn’t keep Tylenol or other fluids down, mom does nothing until the kid goes into a seizure and then proceeds to FREAK THE FUCK OUT. No, really. You’ve never seen anyone freak out til you’ve seen this chick running around, flailing her arms, screaming and crying so loud that you can’t even hear the 911 operator giving instructions. It took every ounce of strength I had to NOT slap her fucking silly the first time.
Tonight, it happened again, only this time, it was her daughter that was sick.
I could hear the woman screaming as she ran to my door (they don’t have a phone in their apartment), and I just KNEW it was happening again. Sure enough, I open my door when she knocked and there she was, holding her daughter and screaming bloody murder. I grabbed the phone, told her to put her daughter down on the floor and dialed 911. That was a mistake because it just freed her arms to allow the requisite flailing to accompany the screaming and crying. Thankfully, her boyfriend was home so I told him to get her the hell out of here so I could hear the instructions being fed over 911. The little girl was listless and had a fixed stare…and hotter than hell…but she didn’t stop breathing like her brother did over the summer. She seemed to perk up a bit when the EMTs showed up and she started screaming bloody murder, so I’m sure she’ll be fine.
Honestly, I have all the sympathy in the world for a mother who fears for the life of her child. I REALLY do. But god damn it, you are of absolutely NO use to your child if you allow yourself to freak out.
Hasn’t anyone told this woman how to care for a sick kid and when to be concerned enough to take it to the doctor? I can understand it happening once…but twice?? They’re not neglectful parents by any stretch of the imagination, but they certainly need a clue or two. They’re both young and I should cut them some slack, but the drama from the mother annoys the ever loving shit out of me.
On the bright side, that’s TWICE recently that I’ve gotten out of having to use CPR and that is always a good thing. Giving the Kiss of Life to that Annie doll is one thing…but I have an unreasonable fear that I’ll blow up a little kid. I’ve got the heimlich manuever down pat though. I had to perform the baby heimlich on my youngest son when he was almost a year old and choked on a piece of teething biscuit and I had to do the regular heimlich on my oldest son when he choked on a Lifesaver when he was 6 or 7.
But the thought of having to do CPR on another human being unnerves me a bit.
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