the badbadivy experience

Yup

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:09:00 +0000

Still blogging over here. Come on and check me out, if you're not already.

Movin' on down the road

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 02:43:00 +0000

Man, lately it's been a struggle just to struggle, but I'm getting a lot better, I'll tell ya.

I'm packing up my shit and moving over to WordPress. Lynnster's probably like, "DAMN, Ivy, FINALLY!"

I know I haven't been posting a hell of a lot here lately, but that's because I'm writing in a lot of other places. I'm posting *somewhere* at least once a day. Where, you ask?

Home-Ec 101
(mine and Heather's baby)

Curbly
(Home improvement, DIY, and interior desgin. Kick ass.)

Shakyard
(my spiffy new gardening blog)

And, of course, my new digs over at WordPress.

So, adios blogger! Come read me in all my new places. Add 'em to your feed reader. Change the link on your website. Add links to my new websites. You know you wanna.

The bad luck continues

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 14:21:00 +0000

I was in a hell of a lot of pain last night- I thought it was due to TMJ- so I went to the ER where they prescribed me Ultram. The Ultram didn't even begin to touch the pain and I got about an hour of sleep last night in little tiny snatches. I decided I might have an abcess tooth or something- the pain is worse than any TMJ pain I have ever had. So I have a dentist's appointment in half an hour.

And, to add to the agony, St. Mark's creatinine levels are now in kidney failure. He should be getting dialysis, but no mention of that to him. When your creatinine levels are at a 4.7, that is seriously not good. If my dad dies, I will sue the shit out of everybody involved, mark my words.

The good news about all this is, while things can certainly get worse, I am feeling like this is probably the extent of the bad news for now. Let's hope and pray this is true.

UPDATE: Well, I went to the dentist and it's pretty bad. I have four, count 'em, four abcessed teeth. Gee, I'm so glad I inherited St. Mark's crappy teeth instead of Mystery Lady X's good ones. /sarcasm It's going to cost ten grand to get it all fixed up the right way. I'm going to opt for the cheap way and only fix some of them and not sweat getting a bridge for all my missing teeth. Man, if I hit the lottery, the first thing I'd do besides pay off my student loans is fix my teeth.

Today through new eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:35:00 +0000

I'm feeling a lot better today. Thanks so much for the comments, emails, and IMs I received from you guys. I appreciate it to no end. Jim has been very supportive. He thinks I ought to cobble together as many blogger jobs I can, and just batten down the hatches financially. He feels, as I do, that Home-Ec 101 is going to take off in a big way, and I'm not going to have to worry about it for too much longer. I really hope so. Remember, kids, link soon, and link often! ;)

There's always the full time job route, which I am completely considering. Lindsay sent me a tip on a gig that I am seriously considering applying for. The hard part on deciding on a full time job is putting Nate in daycare, and driving somewhere daily. Would that eat up my profits? Would it eat up my writing time? I just don't know.

I've been applying for a bunch of stuff, but deep down in my heart of hearts, I just wish someone like the Murfreesboro Post or the DNJ would just come drop a columnist gig in my lap, like they did with Gunner, heh. Do you hear me, Murfreesboro Post? I love your website!! ;)

I feel like I should be able to get something, though. I can build a blog, I know how to build blog traffic, I'm a decent writer, I should be able to come through with enough to help support my family. The thing that worries me is when.

Batting 0

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:56:00 +0000

Well, I'm batting 0 in the regular job arena, anyway. Other things are doing quite well.

I had a meeting with my boss at the HR gig today. While I was driving up there, I was wondering what it would be about, although he usually likes to check in with me every couple of months or so. Well, the meeting wasn't to check in. It was to lay me off. Dammit.

I managed not to cry in my boss's office, heck, I still haven't cried although I would like to. I really liked that gig.

In case you didn't already know, that means my *regular* income that I can count on is now zero. I'm making money working for Curbly, but it's hard to judge how much money I'll make, and it's not nearly as much as I was making for my HR gig, anyway. I was already trying to make up the money I lost from losing my ParentsConnect gig.

I was going to move over to WordPress today, too, but now I just don't have the energy. Excuse me while I either go have a nervous breakdown or go clean my house. One or the other. It's all the same, heh.

Nigerian e-mail scams

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:02:00 +0000

I love Nigerian email scams. They crack me up, I have no idea why.

Which is why I about shit my pants with glee when I got a Nigerian IM scam just now:

[20:46] khan.rosehousehold: Are you intrested in a part time job offer??

[20:46] badbadivy: It's entirely possible

[20:46] khan.rosehousehold: hello

[20:46] badbadivy: Hi

[20:50] khan.rosehousehold:

[20:50] khan.rosehousehold: Talk to me

[20:50] badbadivy: I *am*

[20:50] khan.rosehousehold: i said How are u doing

[20:50] badbadivy: Well, I missed that IM, somehow.

[20:51] badbadivy: I'm fine, how are you?

[20:51] khan.rosehousehold: great ty

[20:51] khan.rosehousehold: i would like to know your Age, Sex and Location, and what you do for a living. I am 25 female from England and i work fo

[20:51] badbadivy: OK, I'll play along.

[20:52] badbadivy: I'm 31, a woman, from Nashville, TN. I'm a professional blogger.

[20:52] khan.rosehousehold: k

[20:52] badbadivy: What did you say you did? I only got "and I work fo"

[20:52] khan.rosehousehold: The company name is Rose Household Textiles Ltd. Uk and we are located in Khan House, Chattley Street in Manchester, Lancashire Uk.

[20:52] khan.rosehousehold: Our main factory and head offie is located in Uk were but we also have a factory in wst Africa where we get most of the cotton which we use in manufacturing our products.

[20:53] khan.rosehousehold: We manufacture duvets,pillows,bedlinen, covers, mink blankets, satin bedspread. These are the main Products which we manufacture and supply to our customers.

[20:53] badbadivy: Interesting, what part of west Africa?

[20:53] khan.rosehousehold: These products are being supplied to our customers who are in the united states and some other countries around the world.

[20:54] khan.rosehousehold: SOUTH AFRICA, NIGERIA, CONGO

[20:54] khan.rosehousehold: we are looking for a representative in the Unites states, someone who would help us recieve payments from our customers in the United states.

[20:54] khan.rosehousehold: We are willing to pay 10% per every payment you recieve and you can still keep your regular job while you work for us.

[20:54] badbadivy: Just what I always wanted, a Nigerian e-mail scam in an IM!

[20:55] khan.rosehousehold: WHAT DO U MEAN??

[20:56] badbadivy: Dude. The whole world is onto Nigerian e-mail scams. It's so old, my dad laughed at someone that sent him one of these, although I do feel special to be getting it in an IM and not an email.

[20:56] badbadivy: If you're gonna scam people, try using different countries, at least.

[20:58] *** khan.rosehousehold has been ignored.

That's the ever-popular Yahoo IM, by the way. Funny, I never get these kinds of weird IMs from AIM or MSN messenger or Google Talk. I really should ditch the YIM, I have no idea why I even still use it, I think most of my friends use either AIM or Google Talk, and work uses MSN messenger.

The news you've all been waiting for

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 15:26:00 +0000

I've built it up enough, I know. So, what is this fabulous project Heather and I have been cooking up?

Introducing...

Home-Ec101.com!!

It's a fun, snarky look at the ins and outs of household chores. It's a site that shows you how to do all that crap we should have learned when we were in Home Ec classes, but didn't.

Martha Stewart, move over! The Home-Ec 101 chicks are coming! (And check your glue gun at the door!)

Please link to Home-Ec101 on your blogs. Tell everyone you know. ~~Put up a billboard.~~ (Okay, that's more my responsibility than yours, haha.) Do whatever you can do to let the world know!

Ivy and Heather'd appreciate it a lot. ;)

Why take diet pills when you can enjoy Ayd's?

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 19:39:00 +0000

Indeed, that is the question du jour:

I know, I'm completely immature for finding this hilarious.

What a day...

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 03:37:00 +0000

Holy crap, y'all, this has been some day! I had to stay up til 1 am last night getting stuff done because this morning Nate had a doctor appointment. Normally, this is my busy Thursday, but I had to back it up because of the doctor appointment.

The reason for Nate's doctor appointment was because Nate's been having a lot of accidents lately, and I wanted to rule out anything medical. He's fine medically, it's all behavioral, so I'm going to have to redouble my efforts on that. Which is to say, redouble my efforts at not getting pissed off when he wets his pants, redouble my efforts to praise and reward, etc. Dr. Cobb wanted to know if Nate had been getting less attention lately, and I hate to admit it, but it's true.

I just have so much to do between Curbly and my HR gig and my new project that I've had not much time with the kids lately. I keep telling myself that this will all change once something breaks and the world discovers my genius, but at this point, I need to put the effort in. Of course, in the back of my brain I keep hearing my former boss at the auto repair shop telling me he wished he'd spent less time putting beans on the table and more time shelling the beans with the kids (or something like that, I wasn't really paying attention to him when he was talking, as per usual), but I also know that this is my big chance, and I need to keep building.

So, I found out my home phone was cut off, which sucked- that has NEVER happened before- I've had plenty of various services cut off, but never my home phone. Normally BellSouth emails me when it's time to pay the bill, but apparently not this time. Grrr.

So I got home and piled into all the work I had been neglecting (including a spreadsheet that I had 2 hours to make and not the correct info to actually make said spreadsheet), when I got an IM from Heather that made me very, very happy. It's all part of the new project, which I will be unveiling on MONDAY, so be here or miss it, whatever. ;)

Got the home phone cut back on, and it's been work, work, work ever since. It's been a crazy, but good day, other than the great home phone cut-off. In fact, I'm so cheery, I was totally going to write an angry post about the kid that died from lack of dental care and the general state of medical "care" for Americans, but I'm in such a cheery mood, it's hard for me to work up enough righteous indignation to write the post. Perhaps I'll wake up in a shitty mood tomorrow so I can write said post. Perhaps not. We'll see.

**Throws out hugs to everyone!** I love you guys! :D

Now, here's something I need

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 21:03:00 +0000

Because you KNOW you need some monKEYS!

Thank you, Logan's Roadhouse!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:25:00 +0000

The health insurance that is offered to people in the restaurant business is notoriously bad. When Jim was at Outback, we had Cigna, which meant less headaches trying to get them to pay up, but they didn't pay for much, anyway. Office visits were paid at 80% after the deductible. They didn't pay for well visits at all. I ended up paying the maximum for the births of my children- $3000. That sucked because Outback doesn't pay their managers for shit.

When Jim went to Logan's, the insurance got better and worse all at once. There was a $20 co-pay for sick visits, but they didn't pay for well visits at all, and they constantly gave us the runaround about paying for anything else. We had to chase them for over 8 months to try to get them to pay for Nate's speech therapy- filling out their stupid forms and faxing them in, only for them to "lose" the forms, having to fill them out and send once again. Finally, after 8 months they sent us a letter saying they didn't pay for speech therapy at all. They could have saved us a hell of a lot of time and stress by telling us that at first.

We got a letter in the mail yesterday from Logan's telling us that starting April 1, we're going to have a new health insurance company. It's United Healthcare. I'm so freaking happy, I could shit my pants with glee.

Aaron has United Healthcare through his dad, and we've had very little trouble getting them to pay up. Better yet, they cover well visits and all sorts of stuff the old health insurance company didn't pay for. We also now have vision coverage, which is a fabulous thing, since I have terrible eyesight and it looks like Megs is going to have the same eyes her ol' mama has.

So, to Logan's Roadhouse, I send my sincere thanks. This is huge, to finally have decent health insurance, I cannot thank you enough.

New Blogger!

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:02:00 +0000

So, my buddy I wrote about in my last post has, indeed, started a blog. Go check her out here. (That's right, Lynnster, she went with a Wordpress blog!)

Things just keep getting better...

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:08:00 +0000

I had a good weekend. My pal Heather and I were smacked with the idea of a lifetime, and we are working on something big. When it's all nice and nifty and ready to go, I'll be sure to let you guys know.

I was talking to my cousin this weekend about the new love in his life, and he sent me a link to her myspace page. I went to look at more pictures, and it made me log in, stupid myspace. So I logged in, and lo and behold, there were new messages! (and new comments, and new friend requests, but the messages is the important part for this story, haha) I opened up my myspace inbox and there was a message from one of my best friends in college.

Man, this girl and I go way back. She and I had the best time in college, she's one of those people that I can laugh with forever. I ended up calling her, and we talked for over an hour about what's been going on with us since we last spoke, and it turns out we've both turned out to be respectable citizens and all. Shocking, considering the types of people we were. ;)

The best part is, she's a writer, and is considering taking up blogging, so you guys will hopefully get to know her soon, too. Y'all are going to love her to pieces, I promise.

I've been tripping a lot down memory lane lately, with the whole CD uploading thing and all. Dudes, I've had a fun life. It's been hard at times (and what life isn't?) but I've been lucky to have an incredibly fun time with it.

Mood: Mellow

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:34:00 +0000

It's about damn time I was in a completely happy, mellow mood. And that's exactly how I'm feeling right now. First, in the past week and a half I've had posts I've made on Curbly picked up by the big bloggers. First, on Lifehacker, then yesterday on The Consumerist. Remember how I said a comment on my blog is like handing me a $5 bill? Yeah, getting link love from these 2 blogs is like handing me a $100 bill. Twice.

But that's not the only thing making me happy- although that has made me pretty damn happy. The other thing making me happy is that I finally got around to ripping my favorite songs from my 8 million CDs onto my computer. It took 5 hours to do, but I did it. Now I'm in the process of making mix CDs to play in my car.

Going through all the CDs and finding songs was like finding lost friends all over the place. I love music, all sorts of music. Yes, even rap and country- the two music genres people generally either love or hate. I'm actually surprised at how much country music I own- there's 3.9 hours of country in my music library. Wow. Of course, WMP is strange about how it categorizes music- my 6 minutes of reggae music I have is actually Loreena McKennit's Mummer's Dance. Explain that, yo.

The weather being nice and toasty warm helps my mood, as well. Some days it's just great to be alive and this is one of them.

TMJ and happy, happy, joy, joy

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:29:00 +0000

I woke up this morning with jaw pain that was so bad, I am having a hard time thinking. I just took my last 800 mg. ibuprofen. I'm totally cursing the fact that in order to get some vicodin I need to make an appointment with my primary care doctor. The rational part of me understands that this medicine is rightly a controlled substance, but the pain in my jaw says otherwise.

So, it's another day of soft foods like oatmeal. Bleh. I had surgery a couple of years ago to remove the teeth that the oral surgeon said were crowding my mouth and causing my jaw to be misaligned. Sigh. Now I have fewer teeth and the pain's back. Part of me wants to go ahead and have the surgery where they break your jaw and realign it and your jaw is wired shut for 6 weeks. But I've heard nothing but bad stuff about that surgery. I guess there's just no real way to not live in pain with my TMJ. That's so frustrating.

But I said I was going to type about things that make me happy, like laughing children and kittens and rainbows today. So that's what y'all are going to get, I keep my promises. Here is a list of things that make me irrationally happy:

1. Slartibartfast's comment on my most recent post. I dunno, it cracked me up.

2. The fact that it's 61 degrees today. Yay, I'm so happy to see the semi-warm weather back!

3. IMs from my buddy Heather, who is now a paid blogger too. It's not just the IMs from her, it's her joie de vive. Heh.

4. The fact that I know just enough Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and German to get my ass in trouble in any place that speaks one of those languages.

5. Madden 2007 for the PS2. Not only can you create your own teams, but you can create your own players. I'm considering starting up a team that consists of all liberal bloggers, then making a team that consists of all conservative bloggers. Quarterback for the liberal team? John H. Quarterback for the conservative team? Bob Krumm. And for no other reason than it makes me laugh, I'm going to make Sarcastro a tight end on the conservative team.

Is that enough cheery, happy, happy for you guys?

I am nerdier than my brother

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:16:00 +0000

Gawd, y'all, I probably need some anger management classes since 99% of my posts lately are things I'm pissed about. I promise: tomorrow I will write about things that make me happy, like snuggly children and kittens and rainbows. But today, I need to get this off my chest.

I went out to dinner with Mystery Lady X, St. Mark, and my brother Doc last night. I started talking to my brother about a game I've been playing online, because I was thinking it would be a game he would enjoy playing. And he sat there and started making fun of me.

He said, "Well, in order to play that game, I'd have to have a computer of my own (which is funny, since they have a million computers in MLX's house), an internet connection that works (funny again, since they've got one of the best home networks I've ever seen), and NO LIFE WHATSOEVER."

I just looked at him. "No life?", I asked. "Yes,", he said, "I can see it now. You play that little game with your friends and then you probably go and blooooooog about it. Face it, Ivy, you're a complete loser with no life."

"Excuse me, pal," I said, "I *do* have a life. I have a lot of friends and I go out and do things, too. I play the game in my downtime, and I get PAID for blogging."

"Funny," he said, "I thought you got fired from your paid blogging gig."

At that point, St. Mark must have sensed that my head was about to explode and I was considering coming over the table and beating the tar out of him, because he simply said, "Actually, Doc, she got a new paid blogging gig." I told Doc about my new gig with Curbly and he said it was cool, and we moved on to new subjects.

Unfortunately some of the new subjects were about politics and he got some more jabs in about my blogging. He also mentioned how blogger friends weren't "real friends". Ugh, I was so pissed.

What gets me more than anything is the fact that a 28 year old man who still lives with his mommy and daddy has the nerve to say *I* have no life and *I* am the geek. He said while I was blogging and playing my game, he was out dancing and partying with his friends. The point I didn't get to make was whether I was blogging and playing the game or not, I wouldn't be out at nightclubs dancing and partying because I have children and bills to pay, so I couldn't, anyway.

Mystery Lady X would probably say he's jealous or something. She'd try to smooth things down because she thinks we're both wonderful and hates it when we fight. But I need to put him on warning, he'd better shut the fuck up or I'm gonna have to throw down on his ass.

Yeah, I'm still pissed, even this morning.

In which Cracker Barrel vexes me, yet again

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 02:26:00 +0000

I have no eathly idea why I even eat at Cracker Barrel anymore. The last 4 out of 5 times I have been there I've received either bad service or bad food. Tonight was a bad food night.

First, let me explain something. I despise burnt food. I won't eat burnt marshmallows, burnt toast, burnt steak, *anything* burnt. I don't even like blackened chicken because it reminds me of that burnt taste. Mystery Lady X burned everything we ate when I was a kid- she prefers food burnt. When she orders a steak, she orders it "extra well- it's okay if you burn it" and she means it.

I was probably 14 or 15 years old before I realized there *was* another way to eat steak, and I've been ordering my steaks rare and my bacon limp ever since.

So tonight was no different when I ordered my bacon limp. When I received my food 25 minutes later, not only was the bacon completely burnt, but so was the hash brown casserole. I sent the bacon back, but thought I could probably eat around the burnt hash brown casserole.

I took a couple of bites and the HBC that wasn't burnt still tasted burnt. Argggh. So, I sent that back too. The thing that pisses me off is, why do servers send out burned food? Ick, ewww, nasty!

Remind me to just not go back to Cracker Barrel at night any more. It seems the day shift has their shit together, but the night shift must be the "B" team.

Meet me at the playground, Stacey Campfield!

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:52:00 +0000

Well, holy crap, I'm sick and I come back to our state's most idiotic lawmaker threatening my friends and going around trying to push dummy laws that are beyond ridiculous. How many babies have you birthed, Mr. Campfield? How many times have you miscarried, Stacey? Have you ever had to make a decision like that? No? Oh, yeah, you haven't, because you're a man.

But the stupid doesn't stop there, oh no. He calls out my buddy John in question #5, and that's where things have really gone too far. I hope your consituents are paying attention to your childish antics and vote you the hell on out of office next time you're up for re-election.

Happy Valentine's Day, indeed. :/

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:16:00 +0000

Dammit. This is the first Valentine's Day Jim has had off in the 8 years we have been together. And I'm sick as a fucking dog, I can't stop puking or shivering.

LMAO@life smacking me in the face.

ETA: I totally forgot to tell y'all I've been added as a featured writer at Curbly! Go check me out over there, and add my blog over there to your blogrolls/feed readers, please!

Oh, MAN!

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 13:59:00 +0000

Remember Megs puking on Friday? Well, now everybody in the entire house is sick except me. I'm sure I'm next. Ack.

2 things.

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:52:00 +0000

1. Curbly's back up, so go check it out. I just posted a post on the famous Mothership BBQ's bathroom. Go check it out and comment, please! :)

2. I was talking to an LJ acquaintance in an IM earlier today and realized just how lucky I am in the ex-husband/stepmother department. The acquaintance was telling me how she just *despised* her kid's stepmother- she believes the stepmother is trying to get her daughter to come live with the stepmother and ex-husband, presumably because the stepmother is pissed because the ex-husband pays child support to my acquaintance. Also, my acquaintance believes the stepmother is trying to "take over", whatever that means.

The acquaintance said to me, "I'm sure you know how it is, your oldest has a stepmother, right?" Actually, no, I don't know how that is, and I told her that. My acquaintance hasn't known me very long, obviously, most of my friends could tell you that I sing the praises of Aaron's stepmother.

Aaron's stepmom is a lovely lady. She's easy to talk to and very *real*. It is clear that she loves Aaron as if he was one of her own kids, and I appreciate that to no end. I deal mainly with her nowadays, and I feel like it makes all decisions about Aaron much, much easier. I have no history with her, and she has always treated me very well. I feel like she is a very fair and honest person, and I really like that about her.

I think she likes me, too. I sure hope so, I respect her a lot. She's always very nice to me when I talk to her, so I'm hoping she's not hating me behind my back or anything, haha. She doesn't seem like the type of person to be like that, though. I dunno, she's just good people. I couldn't have gone out and picked a better person for a stepmother for my son.

I feel for people who have problems with their exes and their kids' stepmothers, I do. This is one of those times where I got extremely lucky.

Good day/Bad day

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 04:30:00 +0000

Good day: Got to be a stop on Shauna's Laundry World Tour 2007. Also got to see the inside of her abode, which is faboo and I want her house- she did an awesome job decorating.

Bad day: St. Mark announces, "The nephrologist says it'll be at least 2008 before I can get a new kidney."

Good day: Got started writing for Curbly.com. I'll actually write more on that later, but here is the direct link to wonderful meeee! Curbly is a social networking site for people who love their homes. But even if you despise your home, you must go check it out anyway, there are tons of great pictures to look at, how-to guides, etc, etc, etc- oh, and it has fabulous, wonderful me. Seriously, if you have the slightest interest in DIY/home improvement/interior design, GO CHECK IT OUT. NOW.

Bad day: I found something very unsettling out today. It's not anything that I can blog about, unfortunately, except to say it exists. And it's unsettling. And I do not yet know how to deal with it, but I am developing a plan.

Good day: I get an *incredible* deal on a new digital camera. I haven't used it yet, but even if I hate it, I paid a cheap enough price that it's okay if I hate it. Yay for Target!

Bad day: The whole time at Target, Megs keeps telling me her stomach hurts and announces to all the Target guests that she's starving, and that's why her stomach hurts. It is 9:00 at night. We did eat dinner. I felt like a bad mother. Then on the way home, she pukes all over the car...that would explain her stomach hurting.

Good day: All the really nice people at the Florence Station gas station who were really cool while I was trying to get the puke stains and smell out of my upholstery. Special thanks goes out to the dude in the white truck who just so happened to have a can of Oust in his truck and he gave it to me. God Bless you, man, for real.

All in all, it was a good day. Super deals on digital cameras and getting to start writing for a new gig where the bosses clearly understand how the internet works basically outweigh puke on the upholstery of my car.

Plus, Mothership BBQ tomorrow!

The raclette experience

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 02:17:00 +0000

Awhile back, I read on Teena's blog that she went to a friend's house and had raclette. Or they racletted. Or something. We're all very unsure of the grammar on that. Anyway, Teena took pictures and posted them, and I thought, that is a very interesting thing, I'd like to try that. So I bought a raclette grill off Amazon and it showed up a week or so later. We finally got the chance to try it out tonight.

Here's a pic of the raclette grill, in all its glory. There are more pictures on my flickr account if you want to see more. We ate Black Forest ham, Havarti (the store not only didn't have raclette cheese, but they were out of Jarlsberg, too, so I got Havarti, I hope the Gods of Raclette aren't angry) cheese, onions, boiled potatoes, and pickles. You take the bits of everything and stuff it in the pan (trying to make sure it isn't too tall, which is the hard part) and then cook it til the cheese is bubbly and brown. YUM.

The kids absolutely loved it. It takes very minimal preparation, and it's fun to do. I'd love to have people over for raclette sometime! :)

Stop vexing me.

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:45:00 +0000

I love white chocolate. I mean, I love it so much it's almost abnormal. If I have it in the house, I will not stop until I've eaten it all. I hardly ever buy it for that reason. Yesterday, however, it called my name so strongly, I had to buy it. I bought "Hershey's milk chocolate kisses hugged in white chocolate", also known as Hugs, but I call them Satan. Or Heaven. Or both. Yeah, both.

Why can I have so much willpower over some things (I got all my work done today! All of it! Didn't ever cruise the internet once!) yet white chocolate has complete and total power over me? Alas.

One last thought on the Super Bowl

noreply@blogger.com (Ivy, the Great and Powerful) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 03:26:00 +0000

When I was a junior in high school, I lived in Indianapolis and went to Ben Davis High School. At the end of that season, we had won the past 14 consecutive games, and were crowned not only state champs, but ranked #1 in the nation.

Because of this, we got to ride in buses (the football team, cheerleaders, and band- guess which one I was a part of) down Crawfordsville road, backwards. It was the most glorious and exciting moment in my life up until that point.

I really hope they let the Colts ride in buses the wrong way on Crawfordsville Road. It is a joy that is not to be missed.