Another year older...

ugh. but what's the alternative? Yeah, I know. So, I'll take the added number and just accept it. It was a great birthday. I have been wanting one of these...a Kindle electronic reader for a long time. p.s. That's not my hand in the picture. I've had it a little over a week and I've read two books already. I love it. It's fabulous. Thanks honey!

The weather has started to finally cool off at night. Still hotter than crap during the day, but now that the nights are cooler, I think I'll start walking again. Considering that my nightly diet has been utterly ridiculous of late. The other night I had banana bread and the remains of a bag of Fritos for dinner. Mmm, healthy.

Nothing but work and trying to organize my house lately. I'm feeling the need to simplify and declutter. Scott could not be happier about this. He hates all my 'craft crap' and yes, it takes up way too much space. No, I'm not a hoarder. I'm a collector....big difference baby!

I'm boring myself so I'm gonna get in bed and read...with my lightweight, easy to read, change the font size whenever you want, built in dictionary, reader. Later.

roller coaster coupla days

Granted, this picture has nothing to do with roller coasters...I just like it.

Yesterday I had an amazing lunch with an amazing friend. We haven't seen each other in ages and I loved that we could catch up and enjoy each other's company. I hope we get to do it more often. She's one of my all time favorite people and just being around her makes me see unicorns and rainbows.
That was the up part of the roller coaster. Today was dealing with AT&T and Cox Cable. (need I say more?) gggrrr. Just a little FYI..... Do you go to FaceBook? I don't but apparently there are little pop ups like "what's your IQ?" and you click on it, take the little test and at the end it asks for your cell number so they can text your score to you. Yeah, right. What they really do is sign you up for shit you never intended to sign up for...EVER! Betina accidently did this last month and was signed up for "daily amazing facts", "daily horoscope" and "too lazy text alerts". Those are things you just KNOW you can't live without. So, at $9.99 a pop per month I was into an extra $60.00 (with tax) on my last two bills that I admit I didn't check out with a fine tooth comb cuz I just got the iPhone and I knew I had extra charges on there for that. Glad I looked at it today. I called AT&T, and what do you know, they reveresed the charges. I don't know about you, but that sounds illegal to me. Sounds like they're the ones who own "daily amazing facts" since she was all too willing to credit my account without me having to go ballistic on her hieney. Bastards. I hate them.
THEN.....I've been paying mom's cable bill for the past 3 years. Paying it online for the past 2 1/2 years. All of a sudden I can't get online to pay it, and naturally, there's no paper bill. Trying to call Cox Cable and actually speak with a human is harder than trying to get through to the DMV. I finally get a human. I tell her how when I go online to pay the bill the only account that shows up is my home and not my mother's. I tell her that since I have gone "paperless" I don't receive one in the mail. "Ma'am, I need your account number." ::heavy sigh:: "Uhh, have you not listened to what I just spent the last 5 minutes telling you? I don't have anything with my account number on it." We went back and forth for a few more minutes and then the twit said it was my fault I couldn't get online. I must have done something. She didn't elaborate much more than that, just that I must have done something. I told her the website was different and since they had changed I was unable to log on. She tells me they changed their website so yeah, I did something.
Frustration and the need to scream and grab an inhaler made me hang up the phone and call back to get someone else. After going through the 27 minutes of "Do you already have an account? If so, say 'yes' "
"yes" "I'm sorry I didn't understand that, please say 'yes' or 'no'" WHAATT???? Hello, English is my first and only language....how can you screw up saying "yes"????????? I have no accent, I have no orthodontic appliances in my mouth, I don't have a lisp,and I wasn't chewing gum or eating Fritos...pphhtt. Anyway, a nice lady answered and was able to take care of everything lickety split. Oh for joy!

Well, after all that strife and pain I felt I deserved a treat. It's amazing what a couple of peanut butter cups an almond joy and a Dr. Pepper will do for you. That's how I roll, so don't start on me, k?

It's 9:30 pm and I have banana bread in the oven...what are you doing?

Farewell to Mr. Kennedy

It doesn't matter if you're a republican or a democrat....we've all lost a great progressive champion who had a tremendous impact on all our lives.
If you’re 18 years old and stepping into a voting booth for the first time, you can thank Senator Kennedy for helping to secure your right to participate.
If you’re an African-American in the South seeking fair representation, you can thank Senator Kennedy for being a tireless partner in the drive to renew and defend the Voting Rights Act.
If you work hard for a living in difficult conditions, you can thank Senator Kennedy for his role in establishing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
If your family has been touched by cancer, you can thank Senator Kennedy for fighting for increased funding for a cure.
If you are disabled and want to live a full life, you can thank Senator Kennedy for critical protections in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
If you’re a poor child with health insurance from the landmark State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), you can thank Senator Kennedy for that too.

Throughout his career, Senator Kennedy believed in a simple premise: that our society's greatness lies in its ability and willingness to provide for its less fortunate members. Whether striving to increase the minimum wage, ensuring that all children have medical insurance, or securing better access to higher education, Senator Kennedy always showed that he cared deeply for those whose needs exceed their political clout. Unbowed by personal setbacks or by the terrible sorrows that have fallen upon his family, his spirit continued to soar, and he continued to work as hard as ever to make his dreams a reality.

Senator Kennedy and his staff wrote over 2,500 bills, of which over 300 were enacted into law. he co-sponsored over 550 bills that became law since 1973.
For decades, he was considered the most powerful voice in the Senate for gay rights as a strong supporter of HIV/AIDS funding, hate crimes legislation and same-sex marriage.


"I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a
star to steer her by." John Masefield

Godspeed, Teddy.

my latest obsessions

No new news (that's weird to say outloud) about Sara at the present time. There is another test for her to have before we move on to other things, so we'll see how that turns out. I hate the wait. So in the meantime, I am immersing myself in some crafty things to keep my mind off nephrologists for Sara and my mom seeing a hemotologist/oncologist on Tuesday to find out why she's so dang anemic all the time. Good Lord, it's always something. But anyway, I've been making hats for the kids to wear this winter while snowboarding and, well....just being in the cold. This little thingy is so fun. It's easier than crocheting and it goes so fast. I just love it. I've made 3 hats for my sweet little nephew and 4 so far for adults. It's mindless busy work and I love it. My next project with it will be scarfs. Go buy one. I've had my iPhone for about a month now and I love it more than...well, I love it lots. I can't get enough of the cool things it can do and I just want to know how I ever lived without it!!!!!

It's just about the most amazing thing since sliced bread. I don't think I could ever go back to a regular phone now. I'm such a technology snob.

And these....lovely, soft, aromatic vanilla beans. mmmmmm, nothing better than vanilla. I'm still making vanilla extract, and vanilla sugar. I've got all the bottles stored on a shelf in our closet and I love opening the door and having the warm scent of vanilla surround me.

Oh, and I took the leftover vodka, added some lemon peel (without the yiggy white stuff) threw it all in a bottle and soon it will be lemon extract. I feel like such a domestic goddess.

So that's about it for me right now. Sick to death of the heat and cannot wait for fall to arrive...which as we all know only means the air conditoners aren't on 24/7. Speaking of which, we got our power bill yesterday and it was not a pretty sight. I had to hide the vodka with vanilla beans and lemon peels from Scott. Yeah, it was that disturbing.

Off to finish up another cap for Kris while I watch tv with Scott. Something I don't do very often.

My Girl

This is my girl. My Sara. My heart. My soul. My life. My reason to live. My dreams. My baby girl. I know I posted this picture right after she graduated from college, but I wanted to look at it again because this just says it all about her. She's fun-loving, hilarious, incredibly smart,loyal, passionate, honest, and has a heart the size of Sri Lanka. (take my word for it, it's big)

This angel girl of mine has a friend close to her age who is in kidney failure. She's married with a small child and as if the kidney crap wasn't enough, she has diabetes too. She is on the kidney transplant list and Sara filled out all the paperwork to see if she could be a living donor.

She matched.

She went through a battery of tests and one of the tests came up in the high range. They decided to repeat the test and as of last week she was rejected as a donor because there is a chance there is something wrong with her kidneys. She was devastated that she couldn't help her friend. That's my daughter.

She had a kidney ultrasound on Saturday and I'm hoping we get the results tomorrow so we'll know what to do next. Please keep this precious, warm spot in my heart in your thoughts.

Eeewwww and Bleechh

eeewww....just looking at that picture makes me itch all over. We had a friend over the other night and I offered him a blueberry cream cheese muffin that I had made earlier in the day. He took one and ate it while we sat around the dining table talking. About a half hour later he said he would like to have another one and we walked into the kitchen to find about a gazillion of these swarming over the entire plate of muffins. I think they enjoyed the muffins too. That is until we annihilated the bastards. Oh, but don't think we're rid of them...ohhhh noooo....they're like the dead pets in "Pet Semetary", they keep coming back. Ugh, I hate those yiggy ants. Oh well, just another one of those fun things I love about living in the desert. That's sarcasm in case you didn't know. So now every 5 seconds I feel like they're crawling all over me and I'm freaking out. Gotta go.....gonna go sneak into the kitchen and see if they're back. I've fooled them though, there aren't any muffins so they might as well leave.

Christmas in July

Fa-la-la-la-la.....la....la....la....la!!! Sing along with me people!

It's about 105 degrees outside, the wind hits your face like a blow dryer spewing hot sand as soon as you step outside. BUT...inside, it's a cool 76 degrees and I'm feelin' like making Christmas presents. These are going to be the most awesome bottles of vanilla extract the world has ever seen. I'm starting now because it takes a few months to get good and vanilla-ey. I just made that word up. I do that a lot. I make up the spelling too. So there.

No, I haven't been sampling the vodka that I'm using to make this awesome vanilla...I'm just trying to get a head start on the holidays. I've always wanted to do a "homemade" (no, not HO made) Christmas where all the gifts are... well, homemade. Duh.

That's about all the fun stuff I've done today. Scott and I cleaned the house earlier. Now...I know I shouldn't look a gift-horse in the mouth, or in this case a gift-housecleaning-husband....but sheesh, men can really be...umm...not so bright when it comes to housekeeping. Scott likes to vacuum one room and then mop it...vacuum the next, mop and repeat. That's just plain dumb. But hey, he was doing that while I was doing the back breaking task of pouring vodka into bottles so who am I to stop him? I did ask why he did it that way and he got a little testy with me so I decided that while it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, at least I didn't have to do it. hehe. No, really, it's dumb. our family room and kitchen come together and it doesn't make sense to do it the way he's doing it. Ok, I'll shut up...but it's dumb. Really dumb.

I have some vodka left over...ohhh hey, there's a lemon over here....I think I'll make some lemon extract too. Dang, just call me the extract woman! Off to Target to return a top I thought would look "cute" on me but was definately anything but. Down right "eewww" is more like it. I may make a stop at the liquor store on the way back...need to make some Kahlua. Forget making dinner....I'm all about making stuff with alcohol today. Look, as long as there's a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread in the pantry, dinner's on the table folks.