CafeChatNoir

OK, he’s a dog, he pretty much loves everyone. But her REALLY loves me right now.

In the course of making some nachos for dinner, not only did some refried beans hit the floor, but some taco filling and cheese to boot.

He’s a happy little critter right now.

I am not a skier, in any way, shape or form. I seem to have some fear of careening into a tree at 70MPH. But I really enjoy watching skiing and other various and sundry snow sports in the winter.

The commentators just said something about one competitor “making a big error” - I watched and all I think is, “Hey, you don’t faceplant, you’re doing pretty good.” (One guy did faceplant off a jump today - that one I was able to immediately identify as a problem even before the commentators.)

Trying to get some alone time… (SFW)

I am pleased to announce that I have successfully replaced the shower head in my bathroom and all the water is shooting out of the proper places.

Yes, I know this is a job that a blind monkey can do, however my track record with home improvement and repair projects isn’t exactly stellar, so this is quite an accomplishment.

And the first thing to go was the stupid flow regulator. I do appreciate the fact that in the instructions they say, “By law we have to put it this in here, but here’s how you take it out!”  This house has great water pressure and I will take advantage of it!

So, when we were out in Phoenix, we helped my Grandmother go through a bunch of old files and such. I got some old costume jewelery and a Singer sewing machine foot. Since she doesn’t even have a sewing machine anymore, she was going to just toss it.

Oh. No. Way. Singer parts for the older/GOOD machines are hard to find. I just said, “Oh, I’m sure I can find someone that can use it.” (I don’t have a Singer machine or I would have kept it myself.)

Ebay here I come. I listed it at 1PM and it was sold by 7PM.

Note to self: Get off arse and get other Ebay-able items listed.

My cold has come back with a vengeance and I decided today that it’s time to suck it up and make some proper soup of some sort, so off to the market I went.

I’ve often felt that if you’re feeling poorly, taking a few minutes to spruce up will make you feel better. However today my mood was, “OK, so I’m gonna look like a scary 70s housefrau, the world can deal with it.”

If nothing else, I think my look probably cemented the idea that the market is NOT a good place to pick up chicks with the local male community. Come on, if this isn’t a come hither look, I don’t know what is: Sweatpants, MCM shirt, Tevas and hair doing god knows what, cause I just pulled it back into a clip without looking in a mirror and off I went.

I also discovered that in the same vein of “don’t go to the market when you’re hungry”, that I shouldn’t go to the market when I have a cold. For whatever reason, EVERYTHING looked good. I guess it has something to do with the fact that when I do have a cold, I will eat pretty much anything within reach. (There was an incident at Red Lobster many years ago on my brother’s birthday. I had quite the head cold, and I lost count of how many cheese biscuits I devoured, and how many times I asked family members, “Are you going to finish that? Can I have a bite?”)

And I must say, the Starbucks next to the local market is VERY convenient. And if Starbucks can’t fix me, nothing can.

Bill being introduced in the Virginia legislature to ban testicles on trailer hitches.

Kinda gross? Sure. Worthy of legislative action? I’m not so sure.

There is certainly a lot of crap out on the internet. And some idiotic people. Oh, but the idiots can be SO amusing. Especially the paranoid ones.

Let’s say you post on a forum and you have made mention of your profession both in your posts, and in your profile, and then later realize that might not have been the best idea you ever had. Do you:

a) Remove the information from your profile and hope that no one goes post digging to find mention of what you do?
b) Create a new profile?
c) Create a new profile and then tell everyone, “Hi, it’s me.”?
d) Create a new profile and then tell everyone, “Hi, it’s me, and going forward, can you not mention that I am a member of Profession X?”?
e) Create a new profile and then tell everyone, “Hi, it’s me, and going forward, can you not mention that I am a member of Profession X?” and then go on in future posts to mention yes, you are in Profession X and how it would be bad if your clients found out who you were?

Cops: Mom burned son, 7, in oven

4 kids believed thrown from Ala. bridge

Mom confesses she killed autistic child

Bodies of 4 Girls found in SE home

Violence against kids is bad enough, violence against your own kids is just too much for me.

While I certainly wouldn’t be up for mother of the year, if I did have kids, I think I’d do OK. I’d do my best to make sure their need for parental induced therapy was minimal, show them the wonder of leftover Chinese takeout for breakfast (hey, fried rice has eggs in it, therefore a breakfast food) and why the beach is the happy place. They would be loved, taken care of and they would never, EVER need to be protected FROM ME. The kicker is that the chances of my ever actually having kids is basically zero.

If you know a parent that seems to be struggling, please reach out.

Wow, it feels SO GOOD to not feel like crap!

And it’s a beautiful day out there to boot. Went out to run some errands and had the windows down and the sunroof open and it was just spectacular. This is Mother Nature’s way of keeping the winter suicide rate down, I am sure of it.

That I’d actually be happy with a day where I didn’t sleep through 2/3 of it. This would be a first since Friday.

At this point, I am actually feeling human again, just a scratchy throat from all the coughing. Since Vicks took the pseudoephedrine out of thier cough syrup (bastards!), it just doesn’t work as well as it did, so I’ve gone old school to finish this off. Menthol cough drops and hot tea with lemon and honey. (If I had bourbon in the house, there would be a shot of in there for good measure.) I also grabbed some Cepacol drops that are citrus instead of the nasty cherry flavor as those may come in handy as well. I can’t remember the last time I had a cold this nasty.

I have found out that my animals are LOUSY caretakers. The dog decided to get on the couch with me for a whopping 15 minutes - at the far end of the couch, with a look directed at me of, “Whatever you have, I don’t want it, so stay over on your side.” The cat felt that standing directly on my chest and chewing my nose while I attempted to sleep would be helpful. (Your misery. Let me put you out of it…) Yes, 10 pounds of cat directly on your chest when you can barely breathe to begin with is SO comforting!

I unfortunately discovered during the past 3 days that my kitchen is not self-cleaning. I also realized that I need to make a HUGE batch of chicken & rice soup and other freezable soup-y things to have stashed away for the next time I’m feeling like crap. (My fav soup, baked potato, sadly doesn’t freeze well.)

I have also found out from little bro that apparently I am not the only one to get hit with the post holiday crud. The folks at the pub were inquiring as to my whereabouts and he said, “She’s got that crud that’s going around” and was met with many somber nods and, “Ohhhhh, yeah. That.”

Yay for being awake all day!!

I pulled myself together and headed up to the store and now I’ve got drugs! I should sleep tonight for a change.

Got home to a message from dantheserene offering to make a drug run for me - how nice is that??

One incredibly annoying thing - everything I bought was age restricted and/or controlled. Had to show ID and sign to get Advil Cold & Sinus, and then needed a person to come use the “special key” on the register so I could buy cough syrup. This has to be one of the dumber moves by the FDA (or whomever came up with the idea) - honestly, I’m 35 years old. I’m old enough and smart enough to know that if I want to get high, there are much easier ways than building my own meth lab. Making it harder for me to buy cold medicine does nothing but make me a very cranky customer.

I’ve thought of myself as semi-decently prepared. I could weather a power outage for a couple days and come out on the other side without too much wear and tear, I can change the tires on my car, etc.

My medicine cabinet? Um, not so much ready for prime time. Yesterday’s not feeling so great that I had written off to “too much fun” Thursday evening kept getting worse throughout the day to where I finally admitted to myself last night that I have a wicked ugly chest cold. The works - coughing, sneezing, too hot, too cold, everything hurts.

It’s not that I have a cabinetful of expired meds, it’s that I have NO meds besides Advil, (my normal cureall) and it just ain’t cutting it. No cough syrup, DayQuil, NyQuil, Valium, Vicodin, or any other fun pharmaceutical that might make me feel slightly less like death. And when you feel like death, the last thing you really want to do is head out into the big wide world and hunt down meds.

So, don’t be an idiot like me and go check your med supply now.

The lovely kitiara is going to go jump into freezing cold water to benefit Special Olympics.  There is even a raffle for an iPod if she makes her fundraising goal of $1500!

It’s a win-win-win situation.  Special Olympics gets help.  You could end up with a new iPod.  You aren’t the one having to jump in the water!

Click here for more info and go donate!

She’s getting really close to her goal - every little bit helps!

Having a Tom in town can be hazardous to your health. We had a painful amount of fun last evening and today I am definitely feeling it. But hey, I only see the guy every couple of years.  And as a result of his presence, there is a case of Mountain Dew in the fridge.  I haven’t had that in years - damn, that stuff is good.

Hillary coming in 3rd last evening in Iowa really surprised me. I knew Obama would give her a run for her money, but I certainly didn’t see Edwards beating her. And on the republican side - Huckabee? Huh? Perhaps it’s time to move to New Zealand - Tom says it’s pretty nice.

Man, I love poppyseed bagels. (Has the medical establishment ever worked out that little “opium positive” quirk for poppyseeds? Or was that an urban legend all along?)

Ahhh, a new year. And so starts the race to see how quickly I can break my resolutions. I suppose I shouldn’t call them resolutions, they’re really more nice ideas that never get a lot of traction.  Maybe I just need to come up with better resolutions, like “drink more beer.”

I had a lovely evening sitting here with my kitty by my side.

I think I may save the champange and have mimosas tomorrow morning.

Much to be done in 2008.  I suppose I shouldn’t stay up until 3AM so I can get things off to a good start.