 |
Alison Blogs HereSemi-Dangerous When Thinking
|
Rather than actually blog about all the things that have kept me too busy to blog, I will provide you with an amusing video link:
Enjoy! I’ll catch up later!
That’s actually Spencer in the back, Miles in the front. It’s difficult to tell them apart just from looking. Spencer is smaller, has a shorter nose and smaller eyes than Miles, but without his brother next to him, you have nothing to compare to! The real way to tell is by calling their names and reaching out to pet them. Miles will look up, maybe even pick up his tail, and if I’m the one calling, he’ll come over to rub up against my legs. Spencer will look up in terror, and run away backwards until he thinks he’s far enough away to turn around and continue running away. The older they are when you take them out of the wild, the harder they are to socialize. We will, though. It might take a bit longer, but there’s progress every day.
She’s so sick, and looks so awful, I chose an older picture of her for her last one. We’re taking her for her last trip to the vet in a couple of hours. I can’t even give her much in the way of special treatment - she can hardly eat, and she’s too uncomfortable to play, and she’s so thin and bony that a pile of laundry is a more comfortable spot for her than a lap. She will be missed.
I had meant to blog this before, but it got lost in a bunch of other paperwork and junk. I came out one night after cleaning up the cat cages, and found this under my windshield. My first thought was that it was one of those annoying flyers for some “service” or another, and I got out to grab it and trash it, but then I saw what it really was:
Made my night.
I couldn’t help it, I had to look at every single one of these bad real estate photos:
http://www.reagentinct.com/category/bad-mls-photo-of-the-day/
Many of them are examples of bad photography, but there’s more than a smattering of truly appalling decor and lack of common sense on the part of the realtor/occupants. (Like #255, featuring a pooping dog, and put up like that on the MLS!)
OK, I’ve been really busy lately, not so interested in posting after I’m done with this - just reading and responding to other blogs, wouldn’t ya know. . . but I’m going to show you a couple of things I’ve been using that I think are marvelous.
I’ve been doing some sewing, but my sewing room is also for mending and such, so sometimes I end up not interested in sewing by the time I’ve made room for it. One of the time-consuming things is a few of hubby’s shirts. (BTW, when they tell you a high cotton count shirt is “wrinkle free”, they’re lying.) I don’t mind doing them, I put on the TV and zone out, but it just takes hours to do all of them - and I forget to iron until I have all of them. So when I got an e-mail from Atlanta Thread with a discount coupon, I splurged on a couple of things.
This is a Reliable Home Ironing Board. It’s heavy and sturdy, doesn’t rock around like your average board, AND it has a heating element and a fan that will blow upwards or downwards to help move steam and heat through the fabric. The foot pedal turns the fan on and controls the speed, and not only does it help in getting the wrinkles out (and not putting new ones in) but it also keeps things in place that might otherwise slip off the board. Only bad thing is that it’s way more powerful than my Iron now, so I might have to upgrade that, too. Heh.
I also got this massive sleeve/pants board. I can finally do the cuffs and the pleats above the cuffs. I do sleeves first, then the rest of the shirt, because the shirt gets kind of twisty while I’m ironing the sleeves.
Now, normally I’m not a big fan of Sylvania lightbulbs, but this one is great. It’s a full-spectrum halogen for sewing and crafting that fits in a regular fixture. Is it as good as an Ott Light? No, but it’s darn close and a heck of a lot cheaper. I have my Ott bulb on the right and this on the left, and I can see everything as I sew.
I haven’t spent all my time indoors, though. We had a lovely weekend, and I got started cleaning up. I prefer to take care of the leaves in the Spring. In Fall, they’re everywhere, and they keep dropping after you think they’re done (or blowing in from other places), and you always feel the pressure to drop everything and work if it’s nice, because it won’t stay nice out for long. The heck with that. Before Winter, all the leaves have blown off into piles, and I can bag the ones that might damage plants by staying there and leave the rest as protective mulch. In Spring, they get blown into even more compact piles, and each nice day will be followed by more nice days, so the pressure’s off. Since I started the Spring Leaf Cleanup this weekend, I became reacquainted with a couple of my favorite tools:
This is one of those rakes that can be made wider or narrower by sliding a rod attached to the tines. (It has a telescoping handle, too, so it takes up less storage space.) It’s great for getting under and in between and behind - less time crawling around on my knees to clean out tight spots! This is one of the cheap ones from Rite Aid or Cost Cutters or wherever I got it, and I’ve been using it for several years without trouble.
This was here when we moved in. We had no idea what it was, but for some reason, we didn’t throw it away. Now I’m glad we kept it:
We’ve tried all kinds of leaf bag holders - wire frames, boxes, tape holding them to fences, the daughters, but none of them has worked as well as this. I dump in rakefuls of stuff, I can smash it down to fit more, and nothing pierces the bag. When it’s full, I grab it by the little handle cutouts and slide it right out. Yowza! Oh, and I’m not being all irresponsible with these bags - the handles are tied in bows so I can take them to the town recycling center, untie and dump them, and then use them again. They’ll collect them at the curb, but it’s so stupid. They don’t want them in paper bags, which would speed up collection and would decompose in the giant town mulch pile, oh, no. They want them in plastic - and when they collect, the guys rip the bags open, dump the leaves in the truck, and leave the empty, torn plastic bags on the street. It’s a pain to take them in myself, but less so than cleaning up the mess the leaf pickup leaves behind.
So there you go. Merchandise that gets my seal of approval. Buy with confidence. Heh.
That means “Not Safe for Dishwasher”.
I was taking pictures for a couple of blog posts and found that I had forgotten this. It’s Audrey’s job to load the dishwasher, but she doesn’t put much thought into it. If it’s in the sink, she loads it. If it’s anywhere else, it’s invisible. However, sometimes I put things in the sink to soak so I can hand wash them later. If I don’t get them out before Audrey starts dishwasher duty, this is what can happen:
It’s a saucer for potted plants. All I wanted to do was get the label off. I couldn’t get mad though - I pulled it out, looked at it, and said “Not so super now, are we Mr. Saucer???” MUHAHAHAHA!!!!
I don’t think anyone from Maytag is checking up on things here, but I know a lot of customers and potential customers are. So, everyone, here’s some Maytag dishwasher updates:
My mom’s Maytag, about five years old, bit the dust. So did my friend Gayle’s. Forgot how old her was, but not old enough to die like that. Mine? Well, besides the same old crap, the piece that runs along the back and over the top rack won’t stay put, because the ingenious clip that’s supposed to hold it won’t stay clipped. We’re hoping duct tape will hold for a while and not mess up the dishes too much. The bottom half of the upper wash arm broke off. The plastic clips got brittle and broke. We ordered the replacement part, but this won’t be going on too long. You’d think that the plastic they used for moving parts inside a dishwasher would be a kind that stood up to heat and movement, but I guess Maytag didn’t. We’re just keeping it going until we can afford to replace it.
I have caught whatever it is that’s going around. Sore throat, gunk in every place that can produce gunk, headache, body aches, the whole gamut. I have a couple of great posts floating around in the mushy thing that is my brain right now, but I just can’t get to them. Must rest. . .blech.
From the Associated Press:
WESTON, Wis. — An 11-year-old girl died after her parents prayed for healing rather than seek medical help for a treatable form of diabetes, police said Tuesday.
Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said Madeline Neumann died Sunday.
“She got sicker and sicker until she was dead,” he said.
Vergin said an autopsy determined the girl died from diabetic ketoacidosis, an ailment that left her with too little insulin in her body, and she had probably been ill for about 30 days, suffering symptoms like nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness.
The girl’s parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to “apparently they didn’t have enough faith,” the police chief said.
They believed the key to healing “was it was better to keep praying. Call more people to help pray,” he said.
The mother believes the girl could still be resurrected, the police chief said.
Telephone messages left at the Neumann home by The Associated Press were not immediately returned.
The family does not attend an organized church or participate in an organized religion, Vergin said. “They have a little Bible study of a few people.”
The parents told investigators their daughter last saw a doctor when she was 3 to get some shots, Vergin said. The girl had attended public school during the first semester but didn’t return for the second semester.
Officers went to the home after one of the girl’s relatives in California called police to check on her, Vergin said. She was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The relative was fearful the girl was “extremely ill, dire,” Vergin said.
The girl has three siblings, ranging in age from 13 to 16, the police chief said.
“They are still in the home,” he said. “There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see.”
The girl’s death remains under investigation and the findings will be forwarded to the district attorney to review for possible charges, the chief said.
The family operates a coffee shop in Weston, which is a suburb of Wausau, Vergin said.
