Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Wherever I wander, wherever I roam

A friend - Biz P - posted on his blog last week about an unfortunate incident of Wildlife Detailing that his car underwent recently. I was going to leave him a comment about one of my own unfortunate experiences as commiseration, when I realized this may not be a good idea. After 19 years of cat ownership, 15 years of dog ownership, and 12+ years of motherhood, my gross-o-meter is not calibrated to normal societal levels.

After thinking long and hard about a response, I chose what I felt to be one of the more innocuous of my experiences, and described it in just 2 words.

Wandering Pee.

Well, of course, this was just too tantalizing for the man who spent 166 words describing avian defecation of a vehicular target, and he has requested that I explain myself. Ok. Here goes:

Our Black Lab, Seamus, lived to be about 15 years old. As a large breed dog, this is very old - much like a human living to be 105. By the end of his life he had cataracts, was going deaf, suffered from arthritis and mild dementia, and grew incontinent.

Can I just say that dementia and incontinence do not mix? Seamus managed to avoid the big puddles while sleeping. And he generally had an accident only a couple times a week. But when he did - oy. I am not sure whether he didn't realize he was urinating, or if he thought he was outside. But whichever it was, he would wander aimlessly around the house, leaving a trail a blind bloodhound with a severe sinus infection could follow. We called them his "Wandering Pees." You could track where in the house he had walked by the trail he left.

And he really didn't seem to realize what he was doing. If we caught him doing it, we could take him outside where he would squat (being to old to lift his leg) and finish his elimination. Then we would have to clean up. We used an enzymatic cleaner to remove the stain and - more importantly - the smell. But this was no puddle. This was a thin stream that stretched once, and sometimes twice around the entire house.

By the time I was done spraying the spots, I was hunched over like Quasimodo and my hand was cramped into a stiff claw-like imitation of a hand.

Now, having described the infamous wandering pees, and the dangers of mixing dementia and incontinence, I leave you with the following visual:

Wandering Poo.

'Nuff said.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Freedom Is Never Free

Have you thanked a Veteran today?



This conversation took place in Nov 2007, when Giggles was 7.

Giggles: "We talked about Veteran's Day today."

Me: "Yeah? What is Veteran's Day?"

Giggles: "It's when we celebrate the people that fought in the wars."

Me: "That's right. Do you know any veterans?"

Giggles: "Ummm... Grampa?"

Me: "That's exactly right. Grampa fought in the war. Now, this one is a little harder. Do you know which war Grampa fought in?"

Giggles: (pauses) "Civil?"

Me and DH: (Hysterical Laughter)

Giggles: "Whaaaat????"

Me and DH: (More laughter)

Giggles: "It's the only war I could think of!"

Me: "Oh, I am SO scrapping blogging this!"



So I did both!

What'd I say?

Monday, November 10, 2008

Who's The Dummy Now?

Celebrity Impressionist, Singer, Comedian and Ventriloquist extraordinaire Terry Fator came to Oklahoma over the weekend. Bob has been showing a lot of interest in ventriloquism lately. He loved watching Terry Fator win America's Got Talent last year, and frequently watches our Jeff Dunham dvds. So DH and I took the three oldest kids to see the show.

It was GREAT! Wonderful songs, terrific puppets, hysterical jokes. I am so amazed by Terry's ability to sing like a celebrity with his mouth closed. The best part is that his show is very PG. Well, it does heat up to PG-13 when "The Cougar" comes on, but since the kids haven't seen the movies that created the references, it all went over their heads anyway. But aside from that one 3 minute bit, the whole show is very family friendly entertainment. The kids love it, the adults love it - what more could you ask?

Terry is a wonderful, down-to-earth guy who spends an hour or so after the show signing autographs. My only regret is that I didn't know it was okay with Terry to "smuggle" cameras in. So all we were able to get was a few cell phone pics. Next time, I'm bringing my good camera.

Friday, November 7, 2008

I Heard It Through The Grapevine


The nutritional information on the side of the box listed the serving size (1 box), the calories (130), the dietary fiber (2g), and one ingredient: raisins. I need to both cut out junk snacks and increase my fruit and vegetable intake, so I decide to get some. I'm trying to eat healthier, so I buy 2 packages of 8 single-serve boxes to bring to work for snacks. I'm trying to shop more frugally, so I buy the generic - like I do 98 out of 100 items. Like I did when I bought a big box of raisins a few months ago at a different grocery chain.

At home, I put the boxes on the top shelf of the pantry - these are for me, and I don't want them disappearing. I take down 2 boxes and put them in my lunch bag for a morning and an afternoon snack. About 10 this morning, I open one and dump some of the contents into my hand. Beautiful, dark, plump raisins look back at me. Feeling good about my nutritional and fiscal choices, I pop them into my mouth and chew.

BLECH! Gag. What the ?!?!?!?

How on earth can a food with a single, natural-grown, unmodified ingredient go that horribly, disgustingly wrong? How could anyone with a modicum of sense, even generic food packagers, screw up the taste of RAISINS?

Tonight, the raisins get moved down to a shelf where the kids can see them and help me eat them. And my "don't buy generic if you are shopping at R" list gets one item longer.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Friday, October 17, 2008

The Smell of Spaghetti-O's in the Morning

School lunch was never a really big deal to me as a kid. Mom made my lunch and I took it to school. Period. I never really thought much about it. Years later, however, I found out what a problem and hassle it was - for my dad.

In an effort to occasionally give me a nice "hot lunch", my mom would heat up a can of Spaghetti-O's and put it in a thermos for me. This was back in the "dark ages" - ie, before microwaves. So not only could I not heat up my lunch at school, my mom had to heat it up the old fashioned way - in a pot on the stove. Did I mention my favorite was the Spaghetti-O's with hot dogs in them?

To this day, nothing can nauseate my dad faster or more completely than the smell of Spaghetti-O's cooking at 7am.

Inspired by The Other Mother writing prompt: School Lunch.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

On The Group W Bench

Those of you who chatted with me last summer may remember what a stressor it was, what with one thing after another. And if you remember even part of that saga, you may understand our frustration when our one month old dishwasher suddenly quit on us the other day. Thankfully, it turned out to be a loose connection or something. And even the animal lovers among you will understand our complete and utter dismay and over reaction at finding evidence of fresh rodent activity under and behind said brand new dishwasher.

Last summer, in the interest of peaceful coexistence (you stop eating my appliances, I don't kill you), I installed two of those electronic pest deterrents that plug into the outlets. And it actually worked for about a year. It was less worrying than laying out poison that the kids or pets could get into. It was better than having to deal with rodent corpses, or a sick dog or cat who found one before us.

This year, however, DH has gone totally Alice's Restaurant on me. I have an online acquaintance who posts wonderful photos of her pet rats online. I love the expressions, and their little paws as they hold blueberries or write threatening notes to their ratty roommates. But I think even she will forgive DH for wanting to poison the snot out of a wild, possibly diseased, monster who has been known to eat holes in my dishwasher drain hoses on multiple occasions. Not to mention the washing machine wiring.

I am conceding that more drastic measures are needed, and DH is taking over pest control. The local watering hole is under new management, and the name has been changed to the Bates Motel.