Rambles from Cletus

On how I keep thinking I ought to blog more

2010-09-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

But I don't. Cuz I have 2 full time jobs. And young. And this thing, who is new. (Oliver the kitten. ALL my son wanted for his birthday this year. Procured a full month late due to me making sure Miles really wanted to deal with kitten hood. )

Uh, what else has happened in the last 6 months? My birthday... Ha. My dad got me a pinata, and put peanut butter cups and rollos in it. So it won. We bashed it inside since it was dark and cold here in May. I still have this "hat" in my closet if anyone else wants a go.

Crazy monsoon season sunset, circa August sometime. We had the best monsoons this year, it rained SO much. Coming from the desert I still like rain. My yard grows things too. I had Yarrow, and elder berries. (And 43 different kinds of blooming things/weeds/things) The season started with the most neat-0 purple tulips...

This is kitty more recently, he is pushing 6 months. Time to get him snipped. (Though we hesitate only cuz his nifty stripe pattern repeats on one of his testes. And it pleases us. We are easy to entertain...)

And not much else is new. Poor, tired and stressed seem to be the theme of the last 8 or 10 months.

My mom is coming to visit.
Miles started school.
I am the ONLY mom in the whole world who did NOT take pictures of him in his 1st day of school garb. Sorry.
His favorite part is recess and lunch.
Asa and I had our 9 year anniversary. And we Still like each other.
Bountiful baskets in the shizzle and if you can get in on it I can't recommend it enough... only I got okra today. Eeewwww.

Well, that's it for this 6 months...

Kisses and worm snuggles.

It's good, It's funky, It's Funky Good.......

2010-03-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

There it is... The culmination of ton of freaking effort on the part of many people, The Shop.

Mint condition 1963 table and chairs. There is a matching buffet that goes with too...

Ashtrays. That's why everyone smoked in the 60's, it kept you thin, and the accouterments were so damn stylish...

We told Miles he was the security manager. He takes his job very seriously, sneaking up to me to ask "Are those teenagers? Should I follow them around?"
Note the blue paint in the hair, he was helping me paint our open sign.

Lampy goodness.

Butterfly cups. And orange stuff. Things are color coordinated as of yet, Green clusters, blue clusters, etc. I kinda like it.

Velvet couch, very yellow.

Giant metal cock! Dunno why this is vintage, but I like his beady eye and angry visage keeping watch over things.

So far, so good. After a week of work, we have managed to turn a tiny profit. Profit = earning more per day than the rent+ loan divided by the number of days in the month.

Combined with my bakery job (hello 3 am, how interesting to see you as the start of my day rather than bed time...) I'm working like 70 hours a week now. Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh......
But the shop stuff is way laid back, so it isn't killing me yet.

Ice cream cake, now with pics...

2010-02-06T22:11:00.000-08:00

First, you need an adorable helper. I'd loan ya mine, but I'm keepin' him. He does crack eggs with out peel, though. That pic on the fridge behind him is a cow, getting a shower from a water tower. The little thing by the cows tail is a chicken, of course.

Two cakes, cooled all the way.

Take the same pan you use for the cakes, line it with plastic wrap, and smush in slightly softened ice cream. Place another sheet of plastic on top and smooth out with your fingers. Re- freeze for a few hours at least. (I did mine over night) ( I also did it before I baked the cakes, and then just pulled the plastic wrap out and put the whole deal on a plate in the freezer.)
Cut the rounded tops off both cakes. When I put the batter in the pans, I very carefully spread it out to keep it from getting too dome-y. (Always best to do pinkies out with your man-hands...)

Put one cake, cut side up, on the plate you wish to serve on. Center your ice cream block and trim the edges to fit. Eat trimming with the tops you cut off the cake, with your adorable helper.

Put the other cake on top, cut side down. (The "frayed" edges stick to the ice cream keeping stuff from sliding later.

Frost. I think you should re-freeze for an hour before you frost, but I didn't. Then when I was frosting the sides, melty ice cream was running into the frosting, making me have to stop halfway and refreeze. So, learn from my mistakes. And I have no pics of the final project either, as I failed. But I still have to write happy birthday on it, so maybe I'll get another before consumption tomorrow.

I know baskin robins makes way spiffy jelly roll ice cream cakes, but eh, mine doesn't taste all freezer burn-y and is WAY cheaper, so kiss my grits, 31 flavors.

The forgotten

2010-02-06T22:02:00.000-08:00

Our sale priced awesomeness. Lasted about 5 minutes.

Tasted pretty good though.

The cooler. Day one of storm.

The cooler, day 7098 of storm. Also, chairs. You can see one right by the window, there are actually 3 in a row there.

Why does blogger make it so hard to upload pics in order, or rather the order I want them in? And then I get a bunch in and type a bunch up, and post it, and all the pics are in a row and all the "dialog" is at the bottom, not near any thing and not particularly useful as description? Just to stymie me and make me not care about ever posting again, i bet.

The great storm of aught 10...

2010-02-06T21:23:00.000-08:00

January 18th thru the 22nd it snowed. the first day 12 inches, the second about 10. the next day it just didn't stop, and then it rained too.
Here are a few pics from the storm.

This is Miles sledding down the front yard. This was the first day, it snowed all night and then was nice. Then it snowed all night again. After a bit, it was steep enough to hit the house, leading to this next pic.

This is Asa building a ramp up the side of the house so Miles could stop before the thud.

By the time the storm ended, the ramp was way buried. So was the sled for that matter.

Out the living room window. Taller than me. Blag. What is this silliness? Who moved me here? Oh wait, it was me. Dammit.

He was measuring the snow for me. And he is 49.5 inches tall.

Renfield in the "wizz tunnel" Bet you he wished he could use the toilet. It took me forever to dig this out too.

Oh look, more.

At this point it is safe to say I am done with snow. REAL done. And it is snowing right now, depending on who you ask either 4 or 12 inches tonight.

But things should grow like weeds this spring and summer and so I shall look forward to that.

2010-01-22T19:50:00.000-08:00

Well, folks, it's been a wild ride here in on the old mt top. Four or five feet of snow in the last three days, depending on which side of town you live on, plus rain last night, to melt some and then refreeze, (and coat all the pine needles with ice so when you are out shoveling this morning they stab thru your hat. Good times)
This to the left is the Ice skating rink, it caved in this morning I think.

And This, This is sad. This is/was Bookmans. And Joanns fabric store on the left. My two favorite places. (my Third is the burrito place immediately to the right of Bookmans, no word on its roof, but it hasn't been mentioned. The best used book store in all the land. They are saying complete rebuild.

They made it mandatory that people with flat roofs shovel or evacuate today, since 2 more feet of snow are supposed to fall tonight.

So Asa, sweet man that he is, spent the day at my dads, shoveling his roof (my dad is a t4 paraplegic, no ladders for him. Hell, no leaving his house for him these days.) That's after he did ours, and spent an hour shoveling our own driveway. (Well, chipping the 5 inches of ice up)

I have pics I took, Miles in snow over his head and the doggy tits deep, as it were. I'll post them soon.

Stay warm, and dry. I reckon this storm is heading east.

day 9 in which I was forced offline by bad monkeys.

2010-01-09T22:19:00.000-08:00

These things were in our computer, and Asa spent a few hours today getting them out. Or maybe it was some stupid virus that some dumb fuck made up, that made our computer play random music and tooth paste commercials, even when it was offline. Really, I hate the dorks who write viruses. Use your gigantic brains to fight evil, dammit.

I got to do some spy work/recon for some politicos here tonight, to see how many people were at a fundraiser for the incumbent mayor, it's almost election time here, they do it in May for better results. I felt very sneaky, ha ha ha.

And I found out they have a CSA here, which is awesome, come Monday I'm gonna see if we can get in.

That is all, thank you, and goodnight.

Failed miserably, already. Yet, not.

2010-01-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, so on the 5th, Miles and I made a ginger bread house (bought at 75% off, so it was 2.50, that's what I'm talking about) and about 5 minutes later we ate it. Well, parts of it. Cuz why not.

On the 6th, we got approved for the loan for the shop. WIN!

On the 7th, um, Asa changed the oil in the jeep. And I started knitting my first cowl, cuz now (well next week) I'll have a place to sell my goods... WOOHOO)

And I made a really yummy frozen pizza for dinner. (with a bottle of wine that was also 75% off cuz it was wrapped up for New Years.)

And I talked to my mom since it's her birthday.

Day 4 in which next to nothing happened and I am here to tell you all about it...

2010-01-04T18:11:00.000-08:00

Today I paid the rent. and went to Michaels. Which is normally a lovely experience for me, but I've never been to the flagstaff Micheals before. Both of the female employees I dealt with were DUMB. Like I ask a simple question having to do with the gift card i got for x-mas and they reply "whu... I don't understand" multiple times. I kinda wanted to kick 'em.

Then my son and I had super awesome delicious Indian food, so that was the best part of the day (in keeping with the best theme of the nablopomo that I can't actually join due to them being wankers. Or maybe I'm the wanker)

Then someone from freecycle answered my post about the moving boxes we had and then actually came to get them... So now I can get to my washer and dryer, at the same time, YAY!

Then I found this, which in many ways is the other best part of my day. Don't click if you don't like foul language a la Charles Bukowski. But oh it's funny. http://progressiveboink.com/archive/peanuts-by-charles-bukowski/

My DH just told me my style of eating pretzels was "satisfying, but complicated."

With that, I'll bid both of you a sweet adieu, until tomorrow...

Day 3,

2010-01-03T18:54:00.000-08:00

Ning or whatever, thinks I have an account with them, and won't send me my password reset and won't respond to my email so I can't put the nablopomo icon on my sidebar. Just pretend it's there, I guess.

Look! A kid on an alligator!

Today was cold and sunny.

My blogging skills are sharp and pointy.

We ate really good pizza tonight.

I spent all morning writing a business plan and thinking of ways to advertise and expand slowly that shop we want to buy... If we can make it make 1300 a month, it will pay for itself and the loan we'll have to take out to buy it and if we can get it to make 3100 a month eventually, it will cover most of our household expenses too, which would seriously rock.

Miles tells me that spig-detti and baked potatoes which we cook in the wood stove are his favorite foods. (If you have a wood stove I highly recommend trying it, stab 'em, wrap them in tin foil, and cook. Tasty, and kinda free...)

Home depot has a thing on the 1st Saturday (that maybe different from store to store, dunno) where kids get to make a free project, and we went yesterday and it was way cooler than I thought. Miles made a wooden calender with the rotating blocks to change the date. They got to hammer nails and glue and paint, what kid doesn't love that? Next month is a race car...

Day 2, A new possibiity...

2010-01-02T18:20:00.000-08:00

So we have just moved, and haven't got jobs yet, and I met a woman who wants to sell us her funky vintage shop today. It's affordable, it's neat, and she has been trying to kill it subconsciously for the last 3 yrs and hasn't yet. Right now she makes her rent by being open 11-3pm on Saturdays only. She was telling about how she hates running the shop but likes finding the merchandise which is kind of perfect.

I was probably already gonna get stuck with a retail job, how cool would it be to work for my self?

Plus, that would eliminate the need for any special thing to do with Miles, He can come chill after school if the other parent is busy.

The man and I must hash out some details and make some plans, I will share more when I know more.

Two posts in one day? Who am I and what have I done with my self?

2010-01-01T21:53:00.000-08:00

I felt the urge to share that I made the most delicious vittles this evening, An au gratin type spaghetti squash. Ah man it was tasty. When my old man went back for thirds he was talking about how lucky he was to have an awesome cooking woman.

I don't measure out ingredients unless I'm baking, but these are the general parameters...

Chop a spaghetti squash in half. Either take the seeds out now, or wait until it's half cooked when its way easier. I use a melon baller. Place cut side down in baking dish with a 1/2 inch of water and bake at 425 for half an hour or so until its soft enough to scrape with a fork and make the strands. While its baking, make the sauce.

Melt a glob of butter in a big pan. Saute a small onion and 1/2 a bell pepper until soft.
Add salt, pepper, a good shaking of paprika, whatever herbs/spices you like. I used oregano, chili powder and chipolte Mrs Dash. Add 3-4 spoons of flour. mix well

Add 2.5 ish cups of milk. Stir. Stir until thickened.

(At this point I added leftovers from the night before last, we had stuffed shells and I had about a cup of ricotta mixture left over) It was so good, I'd add ricotta again. Well maybe, I only bought it cuz it was on sale, usually it's pushing 7 bucks.

Once the milk mix is thickened, add the scraped squash and about a cup of shredded Cheese (I used cheddar). stir until melty then pour into casserole dish. Smooth out and top with more cheese, I used maybe 2/3 C mozzarella . Bake at 350 for about half hour, until top is browned and bubbly. Let rest for 10 minutes before dishing up.

So damn tasty I felt the need to blog about it... Shoulda took pictures and did it up right, but oh well...

2010-01-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

Hello again, this time from the insanely different town of Flagstaff. Different from Vegas I mean, It's probably a lot alike other towns in the mountains with 65,000 people and a temperature of 6. Yuppers, it's 6 right now as I type. Ha ha ha, us desert folk don't quite know what to do with this stuff... Though the dog has stopped shedding, since he needs those hairs to stay alive.

These blue sky pictures are of around our house after the first time it snowed. (2nd night here, 8-10 inches) The sky is so pretty here. The snow is too, I really like it, especially when I get to look out the window from the couch at it falling, snuggled in a blanket, basking in the glow of the wood stove.

These grayer pics are during that 1st storm (it has snowed good collectible amounts that needed to be shoveled 4 times in the 2 weeks we have been here). This above one is of the back yard. Yesterday,I thought it would be nice of me to shovel a path for the dog so he could keep his feet dry on his constitutionals. Ha Ha Ha, the snow pack is well over a foot deep and icy, I basically dug some holes and couldn't breathe anymore. (It's over 7000 feet here, something we neglected to think about, and 1/2 way thru unloading the U-Haul, we were dizzy and weak going uh, what is wrong with us? My brother kindly reminded us we were lacking oxygen.) That I failed in the dog path does not however mean I didn't cause muscle aches in my back though...

Extreme close up...

Look at that sky! Oh it's pretty here. Still 6 though.

We went downtown last night to watch the pine cone drop (Flagstaff tradition for over 10 yrs) and it was neat, so much easier to deal with than New Years in Vegas. I bet more people were on the strip last night than were in the entire town of Flagstaff total...

It's awesome to have my brother and his family over for dinner.

We bought a 1991 jeep with our insurance money from Asa's accident, and it has 4w drive, which we need to get up the driveway to our house, ha ha. He is much healed from that one, only a jagged scar on the under side of his chin really, to show for it. (That and the lingering guilt of destroying our car, but it wouldn't have been able to get out the driveway right now anyway. And they don't let you park on the street from November til May so the snow plows can roll thru).

Miles Loves the snow. LOVES it. We had to buy some boots and a few other bits of snow gear for him, but he is out there mucking about everyday. The other day, I'm making soup, he is in the backyard, playing. After a while I hear (I think I hear) Mama! MAAAAMMMAA! I ask Asa, Is that our kid? We go looking, can't find him, but he answers our call with an extra plaintitive MAMA! I'm sinking! Asa has shoes on so he rushes out, at the back of the yard there are juniper shrubs growing, but they are completely buried in snow, Miles thought they were solid and climbed the "hill" only to get stuck. After we calmed him down, oh it was funny.

Yeah, I just unloaded the camera, for the first time since, well, there were pics of my birthday on there, and that's in May... Here are Miles and I on Halloween, about to go trick or treating. I was Bunicula... I miss those rose bushes. I wonder if they grow here. There are irises planted here and there in the front yard, I'll have to learn about them.

Well, that's gist of it. Still looking for work, but that'll happen soon I'm sure.

On moving

2009-12-03T21:22:00.000-08:00

This a random sketch Miles made of him on his scooter. Yeah, it's in the dust on the TV, cuz that's how we roll 'round here.

Whee. Well, it appears settled and in just a few more days we will be loading up and moving on out. Back (for me) to Flagstaff, (it's the first time Asa or Miles will be living there). I went to high school there and I think I have been gone long enough that the things that "encouraged" me to run the fuck out of town back in 1995 are changed. Or rather, I am.

I went back last week to see our place and sign the lease, and coincidentally it was my nieces 2nd birthday. My dad is known for his magical slackation (yeah I made that up) and hadn't got the babe a gift, and my brother wanted her to get snow boots since they are recent desert transplants too. So, we packed up and headed to the maul, on black Friday. And ha ha ha, I was worried, the parking lot was full, people parking in the dirt nearby etc... and inside, crickets. Seriously, it was like the maul here on a March Tuesday morning. We ate there and didn't have to wait in line for pizza. Small towns, hee hee. It sorta gives me insight to my old man's lack of desire to come visit here, it's quite a change. A change I feel like wrapping my head around. We will be living on the opposite side of town from my family, near the U and I haven't spent a lot of time over there so that's neat.

And they have good mexican food there, oh how I have missed that. Ketchup with chili powder in it is NOT salsa, vegas.

I started packing, and am reminded again just how much stuff we have. It's nice that it gets easier as I get older to let stuff go. I can remember the first time Dan (my brother) and I lived together as adults, I had huge quantities of toys/stuffed animals etc. I couldn't get rid of, oh grandma gave me this when I was 8 so obviously I need it forever. I was 21 or 22 for pete's sake.
I have huge donate bags already and I only have 12 boxes packed. (most of those are my books,)

Did I mention the floor to ceiling bookshelves on one wall the new house has? Did I mention the size of the kitchen? And cabinets that number more than 3? and the wood stove? And holy shit, this place has closets. And 2 bathrooms? well at least 2 toilets, Miles likes peeing in the yard, but he won't HAVE to anymore...

So it's looking dicey as to my staying with the same company when I move, they made it sound like transferring was easy and now that I am trying it's a whole new balla wax. So there is the good chance both Asa and I will be unemployed when we go. Hee hee, there's something to keep you awake at night, right? It's an adventure. And also? tonight in flag its supposed to be -4. as in 36 degrees below freezing. which is actually what it is supposed to be here tonight, so in perspective, it's not that biga deal, I guess. (said sullenly, -4, who? what? how will we live?)
All those hats and scarves I have knitted everyone will be in use. In the house. ha.

But, it's pretty and its alive there. And its not 24 hours. And its not run by idiots. The mayor here (mayor Goodman, google him for a laugh) got in the wax musuem with his signature martini in hand. The same gin beverage he got in "trouble" for for waxing melodically on to a class of fourth graders.

The few of you, one of you? in town, I'm gonna have tons of stuff to get rid of if you want anything. Kids stuff, clothes, whatever food won't travel well, etc. I'll let you know when I know more.

baskets of love and monkey hats for all.

Slacker, Large

2009-11-17T22:25:00.001-08:00

It's that time again, random shit spewing from my fingers time, with no point and no real reason to share. The peas Miles and I planted (hey, thanks to my blog I know when we planted. This is good for something) are huge and starting to flower, and the carrots have needed to be thinned several times now. Also, a magic side benefit to planting in tubs on the porch is that some of the seeds from last season that I guess didn't grow are growing now and actually doing well so we have baby lettuce and more tomatoes coming up. YAY!

Miles and I made chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, and we buy the walnuts in the shells, and he gets to crack them open with a rubber mallet. I think that was the highlight. Nothing says love like a six year old chasing rolling walnuts around the kitchen telling them to stay still so they can get smashed. But damn the cookies are good.

Trying to move to Flagstaff. It's hard to find a place to live that we can afford and be near things, that is one expensive ass town. But I'm feeling the familial pull. and Asa hates vegas and is ready to leave oh, say 6 months ago. And my niece is there:

And I think I have missed too much of her growing up already. Hell this picture is from last x-mas. I don't think I have newer ones even. Lame. (Oh yes, that is a life size cut out of a nascar dude in the background. My dad's roommate is a fan. And they do live in a trailer, but we's double wide folk ya'll). ha ha.

Started catching the mice again, they were sitting there laughing at us while shitting freely, so we felt we ought to. Have you ever seen house mice? Could they get any fucking cuter? Oh lord. we live trap them, and then set them free in the way back of the back yard. It probably takes them 2 or 3 hours to get back in, right? That's 2 hours worth of turds I needn't clean. Yeah we are suckers, but the little eyes! and the little paws! holding crumbs, and scampering about. Just can't do it.

Asa and I watched Zombieland last night. I give it an A, but I love Woody Harrelson and give pretty much everything he is in an A. I'd like him to adopt us.

Kisses and ponies for everyone.

It's Thursday again

2009-10-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

Well. Miles got a hair cut. I have pictures, but lack the knowledge to upload them, I ought to soon though. It's cute, short and sweet.

Work sucks, it's slow and people ain't tippin'. If you are going out to eat, part of the price of not being at taco bell is the tip. If it isn't awesome service, than I get it, but I am awesome. People tell me all the damn time how awesome I am (at work anyway) but still, no ducats.

on to the 13 part...
B

1. Baking. One of my favorite things to do, and I am sharing that love with Miles. He is an awesome help, knows the difference between baking soda and baking powder, and can crack a mean egg. He finds recipes for us to make now.

2. Books. Another love of mine.

3. Bears. Yay! They don't live near me though, so I can afford to be magnanimous. I do find them awesome in general though.

4. Butter. Very favorite. Wouldn't touch it for years though, only liked cheap plastic margarine. Thanks Asa for showing me the error of my ways.

5. Bats. There is an underpass in Tucson, with a jogging/bike pass under it, and if you are there at the right time of day (duskish) you will see oh, 700 million billion bats come out to hunt. Like it literally takes 20 minutes for them all to leave. It's super fabulous.

6. Baskets, gift. I make up mean ones, its my favorite thing to give as a gift, there is bound to be a few things the recipient will like, and I think I make neat ones with unique items.

7. Butterflies. Who doesn't like them?

8. Breastfeeding. Yay! I think everyone who does it should feel proud of the hard work and if anyone while you are out in public gives you any guff, kick 'em in the balls.

9. Basking in the sun. Every morning when my dog gets up he saunters out into the back yard to lay in the sun. If he was a cat, I think he'd purr. When he comes back in he smells like hot wet dog, but I do love looking out the kitchen window and seeing him looking so content.

10. Britches. Miles and I went shopping today for some new ones, his legs are longer than his waist is wide. Meaning that he can wear 3t pants but needs 7s for length. I do love that you can get jeans with those elastic button dealies in the waist bands, whomever invented that wins.

11. Bees. Asa taught me how to pet them when we first started hanging out. It kinda made me love him.

12. Boondocks. Awesome cartoon. Awesome comic. Viva Huey!

13. Beastie Boys. Nothing says love like "So Watch ya Want"

I did much better this time, faster. Toodles, and kisses.

Thursday13 and other things...

2009-10-01T22:46:00.001-07:00

Oh happiest of happy things, it seems the weather has broken, finally. Tuesday, 96; Wednesday, 76. I spent all yesterday afternoon cleaning the back yard, all the things I've been avoiding cuz I just can't handle the heat, and then when it was too dark to see, I organized my bedroom, dusted, washed curtains, went thru my clothes and made a bag up to donate, & threw out a ton of things. Like spring cleaning but in reverse...

Today after work, Miles and I planted peas and carrots since they do well in pots on the patio in the winter. My lone tomato plant is doing awesome and my first butternut squash is ready to pick.

I believe this Thursday13 is alphabetical and whatnot, so today I start with A. Let's see how many I can think of before I resort to the dictionary. Or a google image search.

1. Asparagus. Yuck. I like to look at them though.

2. Apples. Yum. But only organic. Apples, stone fruit, and bell peppers all absorb and are sprayed with the most nasty of pesticides.

3. Aardvarks. It would be cool if we had a few that just lived in the back yard, occasionally coming out to entertain us with their aardvarkian antics.

4. Anarchists, Knitting for. By Anna Zilboorg. I just scored it off Amazon, (it's a book) and it's pretty neat so far. It's knitting theory, with the premise that as an Anarchist, you'll not want to be following rules, so being able to know inside and out what you are doing while you knit frees you to design your own things and take patterns and make them your own. It's well written, and I like it so far.

5. Angel hair pasta, my favorite kind. Much nicer to eat than spaghetti. (Miles still calls it spig-detti)

6. Allergies. Glad I don't have any. I did one year when I was a kid, the Juniper trees at the canyon were so full of pollen, when it would rain the puddles were yellow. I had this funky nasal inhaler and everything.

7. Abstract art. I like it ok. My favorite is

8. Art Nouveau. I like the swirls and the way things flow together. And the flowers. (so cheating already)

9. Angst at blog pics. Why do they not go where I want them? Or hmmm. Do I have to post them first and then type around them? Have to try that next time.

10. Area 51. I sorta live near there now. OOO creepy. Or something. What's more creepy is the Nevada test sites for the A-bomb. I guess you used to be able to get hotel rooms with balconies for bomb watching parties, folks would sit and drink Martinis with their uber protective sun glasses on and watch nuclear explosions not that far off. In the Tropicana hotel, in a hallway, there is an old pic of one of the Fremont St. hotels and off in the distance behind it is a mushroom cloud.

11. Apache St. The first named street I lived on. Which would make my porn name be Bill Apache, if you follow the 1st pet, 1st st. law. Yeah...

12. Afro. I have always wanted one. Too bad for me my thin, super f'ing straight, limp, takes no curl, hair doesn't agree. It always make me smile when I see one though.

13. Avocado. I hate them and their slimy green-ness. But I eat them sometimes because they are SO damn good for you. My son eats them often and would eat them daily, and has since he was about 8 months old. Such a good baby food, high in all those fats they need for good brain growth etc...

Finally. That was way harder than I thought.

Origami, hummus, and hens.

2009-09-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

AKK. My son was gifted with an Origami booklet and a wad of sweet colored squares, and as he lacks the patience and the secret ninja powers to read these instructions, I promised him there would be surprises waiting when he woke up tomorrow a.m. Sucker ass mommy. I need an engineering degree to figure out these diagrams. But I made a shifty looking bird and am working on a fish. Ok, these are cheater origami, I had to glue something and even I know that true Origami is done only with folds.

I put up ads to join with the fine ladies on Our Hummus is Homemade, a group of ladies who all were looking for answers and found a community of awesome.

This is my mom's henhouse. She gets about 20 eggs a day from her girls, who are all named Percy. Every time I call her in the background all you can hear is the rooster whose name I've forgotten. It's fabulous.

Lets see, I may as well update the blog world. Ummm... hmmm.... Asa still has his job, I still have mine. Miles is still 6. The dog is good. The fish is even still alive, good Ol' Cletus II.

My grandparents were in town for a day last week, that was neat, haven't seen them in a few years. They have a kinda medium sized winnebago and travel round the country. I'm jealous, I'd love to do that. I got to hear some stories about their childhoods which I loved, since I really don't know much family history.

My brother and his family moved to Flagstaff for many reasons in July, to get out of the desert, to be near my dad, job stuff, etc. And that puts them so much closer to me which is awesome. Its funny how having kids makes you want to live near family. I'd like nothing more than to move back myself. Though I think back on my high school years and the things I did... Hmmm. Small towns.... Teenagers.... Yeah I dunno. We are stuck in vegas for the time being anyway.

OOOOO best news of all!!! Can't believe I forgot til now! I planted all sorts of veggies in containers trying to get things to grow and they all die in the heat, but peas and carrots do ok in the winter. But! I have compost in the back yard, and some how, (I think birds) a squash plant randomly started growing beside the leaky kiddie pool we have for Renfield. So I've been cultivating it, and watering it and it flowered, and now has actual size able squash on it, and they are butternut! YAY! Thats my favorite kind.

Some of the news that's fit to print.

2009-05-13T20:05:00.001-07:00

Miles turned 6. We got him a camera, the only present he got from us since the big money fairy has seen fit to avoid our house this year. But it was a winner, since Miles has a big fondness for picture taking. He always has my camera, and my phone is full of pics by the next Ansel Adams.
A favorite model, Renfield. Good dog. He has approximately 300 extreme close ups of his eye recorded for posteriety. And Miles always uses the flash.

In other news, I got a job. Needed to because of said money fairy issues. Asa is trying to find a new job, his sucks and is causing him emotional discomfort. Poor guy, moving here was supposed to enable us to do all sorts of cool things like buy a house and that's all fizzled, and we have never been so broke before. Kinda scary, but nothing's wrong with me, I can work, so I am. Eventually, I'll get my coveted stay at home mom status back.

Why do these not post in the order I posted them? I did the eye first, since it went with that paragraph.

That pic with Miles, also shows ALL of my kitchen counter space. That's what I have to work with, and boy do I use it well.

I will upload Miles' pics off his new camera into a flicka site and link that to here eventually.

Halloween, and whatnot

2008-10-24T16:32:00.000-07:00

1st Halloween in Vegas and many opportunities to do different things. Too bad everyone lives in Egypt. Trick or treating around here'd probably be fine, there's plenty of kids in the hood.
We (Miles and I) went to a holiday deal at the springs preserve yesterday, and it was so so fabulous. I don't know if planned things are better here cuz its vegas and they know how to throw a party or what but, the decorations, the fog machines in hidden crevices, the x-mas lights outlining rocks and trees, all so spiffy, and then the entertainment... We saw a belly dancing troupe, and well, the last troupe we saw was at the Tuscon eat your self (hope that was awesome, I totally missed the potato pancakes) and while they were decent, some of them were new, and most of them were round, and less skilled. Last nights were over dressed so as to not bother the tiny minded folk, but they all did things like synchronized belly rolls and sword dancing, and candles, it was way tight. I observed that a good belly dancer is very like a good break dancer, the popping and locking is much the same, just hips and arms instead.
But every bit of public performance art we seen has been super high caliber. It is big city or is it vegas?
My dad is coming in a few weeks, we are going to go see the Beatles Love thing so that should be cool, and I get to show him some of the cooler things one finds when one gets off the strip.
I also get to meet his new lady then.
My mom has some sort of medical thing, she isn't sure what is going on yet, and I haven't talked to her, so I'm not sure, but hopefully that will work out alright. Actually, my dad has something going on as well, he had an MRI, for dizziness. My mom's supposed to have an MRI next week. Interesting.
Miles is doing well, mastered the alphabet and counting to 20, and starting to pick up words,visually, and write both letters and numbers. He is way into transformers, and has got me wishing too that our car could turn into a robot. (Then it could stomp by all the other cars at a red light).