Minor Irritations

OK, it's "Venting Day" and I have several irritations to vent about! Here goes:


1. Co-worker's kids' fundraisers - I can totally understand the concept of kids doing fundraisers through their school, sports teams, Girl/Boy Scouts, church, etc. In fact, I did many of them when I was a kid - Girl Scout cookies being a prime example. I can also even understand the child's parents taking the form to work to get extra sales for the fundraiser (believe me, I still love the Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies - especially when you put them in the fridge or freezer and eat them cold!).

With that said, I had something happen recently that went TOTALLY over the edge of appropriate. One of my co-workers' daughter was selling cookie dough for her school and he brought in the form. Instead of leaving it in our kitchen area (which has a big counter space to put such a form) so that people could take a look and buy something if they wanted to......he came over to my desk, shoved the form in front of me and said something to the effect of "Oh, you're a woman, the women are always the ones I can get to buy something. *Child's Name* needs you to buy something. Her school will really appreciate it." Mind you, I have never met this person's wife or any of his children before. So I felt like I HAD to buy $15 cookie dough that I do NOT want sitting in my house as temptation. UGH. NOT COOL.

2. I have never been a server/waitress in my 32 years on this earth, but I also don't think that it takes a former or current server, or any other credential to figure out that when servers are refilling drinks by using a pitcher, you shouldn't touch the pitcher directly to the glass/cup!

Hello?! A person's saliva/lipstick/half-eaten food are all over the rim of that glass and now you have transferred it to the pitcher, which you expertly move to the next glass and deposit that nastiness for the next person to enjoy! Think of how many glasses that ONE pitcher has touched and retouched in a day's time before it would get washed. GROSS!!

3. This one might offend parents of small children, but as someone who is childless, I'm going to go ahead and complain about it anyway. What's the deal with the grocery store shopping carts that look like there's a freaking go-kart on the front of it?! Did I accidentally walk into an amusement park when I meant to walk into Kroger and actually go down the aisles with ease?

Where have the days gone when if you brought a child to the grocery store, they sat in the little seat area with your purse? Or if they were bigger than that, they walked or rode in the big part of the cart? I cannot count how many times I have been blocked in by those massive 'carts + big plastic vehicle on the front' or even run into by one.

Now, I'm not heartless - I understand that some people that I encounter are single parents who need to bring their children to the grocery store with them and can't leave them at home with the other parent, or are stopping to get some things on the way home from work/daycare. However, do we REALLY need a huge plastic car on the front of the carts? The rest of us would actually like to shop and get down the aisles sometime TODAY without sustaining injuries. I'm just sayin.......

4. This last one is something that anyone with a drivers license and a car would understand and agree with. During the hours of 6-9am and 4-7pm, it is probably safe to say that most of the motorists that are on the road are driving on roads that they take every single day to work and back or around familiar areas near to their work and home. Right?

OK, well then why, oh why are there always the SOBs that when 2 lanes merge into one at particular areas, they race up to the very last inch and then look like a lost puppy and want to cut in, when the rest of us have been waiting in a LONG line going 5 miles an hour because we know that we need to be in that particular lane and are waiting our turn? Do you really want us to believe that you had NO IDEA that that was going to happen RIGHT THERE?? Since usually there are multiple signs about lanes ending, and you can visually see that there is a line forming to move over....why are they so arrogant to think that THEIR commute is WAY more important than everyone else's and they should just be able to bypass the inconvenience of waiting. Because I bet every single one of those people who are waiting their turn and inching along has NOWHERE to go and NOTHING else to do but sit there for fun. UGH.

So, since I drive 20 miles through some nasty traffic each way every day, I tend to get a little bit of road rage with these annoying folks. I don't do anything crazy to get myself shot, but I WILL definitely try to keep these line-cutters in their place. When 2 lanes are obviously merging together and one will be ending, I will sit my car right in the center of the 'triangle' that is created when the 2 lanes are starting to blend together, so that no one can sneak by and cut in line. I see others do it, but I am a big fan of making it fair.

Sometimes I see people racing ahead and then I see drivers ahead of me letting them in! NO, PEOPLE! Make them sit there off to the side for a while and wait - kind of like the waiting they should be doing at the back of the LINE! I really am a polite driver in most cases - when you are in traffic and someone needs to get over or coming out of a parking garage after a big event, I definitely like to let people out and hope they would do the same for me. However, as for the rude people who think they own the road and don't feel like waiting their turn like everyone else - NO WAY!

By Any Other Name...

While Chris' Mom was visiting about a month or so ago, I found something to be interesting and I had to laugh about it: the different pet names people have for their Moms, Dads, Grandmas and Grandpas (as well as other family members too). I have realized over the years that I grew up in a very boring family as far as pet names go. I was taught at a young age that the words to use are "Mom", "Dad", "Grandma" and (if my Grandpas would've lived long enough to meet me), "Grandpa."

I have met people (especially since I moved down south) that call their family members the strangest names! Some examples are: Nana, Papa, Pappy, MeeMa, Mimi, Poppa, Grammy and the list goes on and on. Where do they get all these names?? I have a theory or two - read on....

Anyway, I had to laugh while Chris' Mom was in town because TJ calls her "Nana" and when I asked him "What did your Grandma bring you?", he didn't know what I was talking about! He didn't know what a Grandma was! I thought that was so crazy at first, but I suppose if you are 4 years old and you are taught that she is your "Nana" and not "Grandma", why WOULD you know what a Grandma is? So whenever I ask him something about his Grandma, I have to stop myself and switch over to the "Nana" word. This is so strange to me!

OK, one of my theories on the million variations of Grandmother is that nowdays people have so many freaking grandparents because of the child's parents divorcing and then each parent remarries, so he/she could potentially have 4 sets of grandparents, not just 2 anymore. And to not cause confusion, many different pet names need to be used.

Another theory is just different family traditions, regions of the country, cultures, etc. Again, I think I just grew up in a boring family in that respect because we didn't really have any weird pet names - just the basics. I don't even remember calling my parents "Mommy" and "Daddy" either - it has always been "Mom" and "Dad." I think I have blogged in the past about even adults in the south still using "Daddy" - that really isn't done in the north, or you would probably get some strange looks. But like Mayce - with her thick southern accent, she can TOTALLY get away with it because it just fits and it's cute term of endearment.

Any thoughts on family pet names?? This is kind of a foreign concept to me, but I find it fascinating.

Sewer Hero

This is a very interesting little article about a hero during WWII. Read all the way through it and you'll be disgusted at the end. We need to be studying our history more and not buying in to the crap we are force-fed in the mainstream media. UGH.

Irena Sendler

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive'...

She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize .... She was not selected.

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

Powerful message - let us never forget!

63 years later

What a scam!

OK folks - NOW is the time to wake up and be smarter than your government! They are telling you one thing and doing another - PAY ATTENTION and don't believe everything you read/hear. It's a scam and we need to be smarter than that! Read on...

If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you get $4500 off for an apparent "savings" of $1000.
However, you have to pay taxes on the $4500 come April 15th (something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500.

So, rather than save $1000, you actually pay an extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for. Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need, that was costing you less to run than the payments that you will now be making.

But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off by the dealer.

For example, every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500 the month before the "cash for clunkers" program started.

When "cash for clunkers" came along, they stopped discounting them and instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more than you would have the month before. (Honda, Toyota, and Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did).

So lets do the final tally here:

You traded in a car worth: $3500

You got a discount of: $4500
---------
Net so far +$1000
But you have to pay: $1350 in taxes on the $4500
--------
Net so far: -$350
And you paid: $3000 more than the car was selling for the month before
----------
Net -$3350

We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car, along with the 5 years of interest on the car loan but lets just stop here.

So who actually made out on the deal? The feds collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4500 they "gave" you. The car dealers made an extra $3000 or more on every car they sold along with the kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan companies. The manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. And the poor stupid consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford.

Obama convinced Joe consumer that he was getting $4500 in "free" money from the "government" when in fact Joe was giving away his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege.

Ghetto Engineers

While the following pictures are SUPER FUNNY and very creative ways to 'fix' things, they are extra ghetto. I don't think I would've ever thought of any of them...and to be honest, it makes me feel like a better homeowner that I never have!

I suppose when life gives you lemons...........

Let The Adventures Begin!

Recently, Mayce gave me my *late* birthday present:

A Texas book called "It Happened In Texas" (right up my alley - Texas AND history?!)

The Pat Green edition of "Texas" magazine (last December Mayce and I went to see Pat Green at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth for her birthday - it was amazing!)

And last, but certainly not least.....a subscription of "Texas Highways" magazine!! It's a magazine that features different paths across Texas and all of the cool towns, out-of-the-way restaurants that are the best, hole-in-the-wall bars that you wouldn't normally pass, and weird touristy things that won't be in the big tourism magazines. It maps out different routes depending on how many days you have for your trip. YES!! I love it! Bring on the roadtrips!

Man, Mayce must really know me and what I like! I'm lucky!

Better By The Dozen

See - I'm not the only one who loves wieners! Read on.....

Better by the dozen - Texas woman admits obsession with dachshunds

Multiple dachshund owner, friend turn love of pets into lucrative fundraiser for Arthritis Foundation

• By Lara K. Richards

Julie Skipworth’s heart has gone to the dogs.

The proud owner of 12 — yes, a dozen — dachshunds is a dog lover many times over, she said.

“I’ve had dachshunds since I was little,” Skipworth said. “I bought one. And then I bought two. And then . . .”

She thought her brood was going to top out at 11, but then a milestone birthday rolled around, she said.

“I didn’t mean to get another,” she said as dogs jumped up and down at her feet. “The vet told me that 11 was enough. But then I was turning 50 and I wanted to treat myself.”

Right around Valentine’s Day this year, little Schatz — pronounced shat-zee — arrived at the Skipworth home. The name means sweetheart in German.

“I try to pick German names, but some of the dogs I’ve rescued and they didn’t have German names, but I kept the names anyway,” she explained.

There’s Danka and Bella, who has cute whiskers.

Izzy is the mean one. Dirk, the only male, is the sweet one.

Wendy is the queen bee, the eldest dog at 12 years old. She occupies a throne of sorts all by herself in the living room. The rest of the pack follows Skipworth around the house, trailing her every move.

Skipworth said her brood expanded greatly when one of her beloved companions passed away two years ago.

“(That dog) was 16. I went into a massive depression. She was my best friend,” she said. “Since my last one died two years ago, I’ve bought four.”

Skipworth said she doesn’t focus on the sheer number of animals. She has tile and wood floors, so clean up is easy, even though the dogs are extremely well trained.

She bathes the dogs every Friday — in the same order, which the dogs know well. Bath time also includes a good teeth brushing as well.

“Twelve doesn’t seem so bad once you see them up close,” she said. “After 10, it really doesn’t matter.”

Her husband puts up with her dachshund obsession. Not only are there the dogs, but there’s dog paintings and dog plates and dog figurines and a dog mailbox.

“My husband’s a great sport,” Skipworth said. “When I married him, I just had one. But I was like, ‘No one can have just one. It’s like a Lay’s potato chip.’ ”

The dogs occupy an important place in Skipworth’s heart and life, a pick-me-up on days when battling arthritis seems unbearable.

Skipworth was first diagnosed with the crippling disease when she was just 23 years old. There’s been surgeries and therapy and endless days of pain and discomfort ever since.

She walks with a cane, dogs happily surrounding her everywhere she goes.

It was Skipworth’s love of animals, and her struggle with arthritis that led her friend, Ronda Ivy, to a great idea for a fundraiser.

Ivy, who is an art teacher at Rider High School and a photographer, had organized a benefit in October for Operation Smile, an organization that provides free reconstructive facial surgery to indigent children and adults.

“That went really well and so we thought, let’s have another one,” Ivy said. “I wanted to do something to attract the public, and I thought about Julie and her pets.”

Ivy sent out letters to her regular customers and friends, urging them to come pose with their pets, anything from dogs and cats to turtles, rabbits and snakes.

The response was fantastic, and the event raised around $700 for the Arthritis Foundation.

“We had a ball. It was just fun to watch,” she said.

It was also enlightening and very emotional to observe people interacting with their “best friends,” she said.

“It was just interesting to watch the connection between people and their pets,” Ivy said. “We had everyone from little puppies to older dogs. It was really an emotional day to see all the love and compassion people have for their pets. These people love their pets.”

Skipworth said she was surprised to find out that she’s not the only die-hard pet lover out there.

“I know I love mine, but I didn’t realize there were other people out there like me,” she said.

The event for the Arthritis Foundation went so well that the two ladies are thinking about holding similar fundraisers for other organizations in the new future.

Blue-Eyed Girl

OK, lately, Chris and I have been debating about eye color. I have always thought I had regular blue eyes - it's in my baby book, all of my family has blue eyes, and my drivers license indicates BLU as my eye color (and that's an official government issued ID!). However, Chris brought it to my attention that my eyes are 'kinda green with a hazel circle around the pupil" and that HIS eyes are "perfectly blue - the way they should be." UGH.

OK, here are the comparison pics:

My eyes:
And here are Chris' eyes:

Whattya think?? Are we both 'blue-eyed' or do I have some sort of freakish eyes??

Wait A Minute, Mr. Postman

With so much going wrong in the world right now, I just have to take this opportunity to discuss something that is going RIGHT. And this 'something' is my post office!

Gone are the days of standing in line on your lunch hour or rushing out of work early in order to mail a package, buy stamps, etc. Now many post offices have 24-hour lobby services that you can use anytime! My post office gives you 24-hour access to your P.O. Box and has a machine that lets you buy stamps or mail letters/packages and get the correct label and everything!

I just love going there late at night when I have to mail a package or buy stamps because then I secretly get to smuggle my wiener dog Maggie in to the post office on a field trip! Yes, that's right folks, Maggie has been to the post office. I don't usually do this for a government agency since they are usually so poorly managed, but: KUDOS, USPS!!