Roller Coaster Ride



It's official, I'm crazy. Truly insane. Men are driving me there. One especially. He's not even my type, BC set me up on a semi-blind date. He's sweet and kind and gentle...and... and... Driving me nuts. I feel like I'm on a roller coaster. That feeling like when one is a teenager in high school falling in and out of love at the drop of a hat. I hate it. I love it. I hate it. I don't like being a slave to my emotional state. I'm trying to do the Vulcan thing and be logical and rational but I can't, I'm a Klingon at heart (yeah I know totally geeky Star Trek reference). I'm acting like a high school kid as well, I keep asking BC if he's mentioned me. Stupid. This guy is not even one of the men mentioned below! I haven't written about him because I just didn't even know what to say - I'm on this damn roller coaster all the time. One time I'm sitting here and it's like I'm on the car going up the hill, next thing I know it I'm feeling that feeling in my stomach like I'm on the way down a big hill. It's crazy. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me. Maybe I have food poisoning.

Ohh Noooo!

Mr. Bill To Help La. Swamps. I loved Mr. Bill, I'm glad he's working again.

Gummy Link

Gummy Bear Sex Yet another reason to NEVER eat Gummy Bears again.

Voodoo Kids



I think I need to worry about the little people. They got some of my sewing pins and turned one of their dolls into a voodoo doll.

Hard Candy



I know you really can't tell what that is a picture of - so let me tell you.

Last week as I was taking a load of laundry out of the washing to put in the dryer when suddenly I see this red thing (pictured above) in the bottom of the washer. I removed said red thing and what do I discover it is - a red Gummy Bear! It made it all the way through the wash in relatively good shape. I was stunned. Especially since the last time the little people had Gummy Bears was the last time we took them to the movies, which was months and months ago... Makes me wonder just how many washings this bear has made it through... And definitely made me swear off Gummy Bears... ewww....

Word Of The Day
From Merriam-Webster OnLine

The Word of the Day for January 19 is:

scupper • \SKUP-er\ • verb
British : to defeat or put an end to : do in

Example sentence:
"In the Netherlands two years ago, schemes to introduce toll booths around Amsterdam . . . were eventually scuppered by a campaign led by the leading Dutch drivers' organisation." (Prospect, March 2003)

Did you know?
All efforts to figure out where this verb came from have been defeated, including attempts to connect it to the noun "scupper," a 500-year-old word for a drain opening in the side of a ship. (The main conjecture, largely unfounded, is that a ship is "scuppered" when its scuppers are submerged . . . in other words, when it is sinking or "done in.") All we know for sure is that "scupper" meant "to ambush and massacre" in 19th-century military slang. Then, just before the century turned, it found its place in a magazine story in the sense of simply "doing (someone) in." The more common modern application to things rather than people being done in or defeated didn’t appear until a couple of decades into the 20th century.

Now, go out and use that word today... it will be worth it to see the look on people's faces when they hear it.

Juggling

Humidity is risin’
Barometer’s gettin’ low
According to all sources
The street’s the place to go
‘Cause tonight
For the first time
(First time)
Just about half past 10
(Half past 10)
For the first time in history
It’s gonna start raining men
(Start raining men)

It’s raining men, Hallelujah
It’s raining men, Amen
It’s raining men, Hallelujah
It’s raining men, Amen

I love that song. This is my life right now. I don't know what's going on but the past week has been crazy. I must have the pheremons or something going on. And ya' know what's the craziest part? The week prior to this it was like I wasn't even here, lcompletely completly invisible. I could have been walking around with a big sign saying I was giving free blow jobs and I swallow and no one would have taken me up on that.

This week - crazy. The horse man is calling me on his lunch hour just to hear my voice, an old flame from the past is talking about taking a special trip to Texas just to see me since his work doesn't take him near Texas any more, the Scotsman and I have a mindboggling amount of chemistry - it's frightening that we've only known each other 3 days!!!!, then the Navy man - after slowing things down and cooling things off a while back - he just said he can't be like that anymore that there's much much more to it and he's turning the heat up again, my Sancho is back - after almost 2 weeks he's back to take care of my needs, and finally there is the cowboy - the bastard - he's back being attentive, saying all the right things - I don't trust him though, I know his patern... my most dsyfunctional relationship - I need to tell him to hit the bricks and don't come back, but I don't want to and that's the crazy part. These are all the men I have a mutual interest in. I'm not even going to mention the unwanted men giving me attention.

I feel like I'm doing a great big juggling routine. It's not that I'm trying to keep any of them from finding out about the others, I just don't know yet who to remove from the list of eligible men. It would be so much easier if one or two of them would show their true nature as a complete ass and I could just tell him to take a hike without having any doubts. *sigh* all this was easier, much eaiser when I was young and naive. No worrying, no wondering, no waiting, just blindly following my heart. Well I guess as long as I can keep my men up in the air I can wait for me to figure if any of these will be the one or whatever.

Cookie Time!


It's that time of year again - Girl Scout Cookie time! Woohoo! I haven't had GS cookies for several years. Now that hubby has this job, there are people there who have daughters in GS. YEAH!!! He sent me an e-mail letting me know someone in his office is taking orders. The thought of GS cookies (especially the two new varieties) - prompted me to compose a poem! Well the cookies and my discussion of men (yes more man woes for me). And here it is!

Affairs of the heart are so confusing... Fun and exciting, painful and tearful... Ugh, cookies are so much easier. Just order COOKIES!

I love cookies, cookies love me,
I never have to wonder and they never cheat on me.
They always give me love that lasts -
Even if it means I have a bigger ..er... Size.
Cookies never put me down or make me feel sad,
And they never talk the town to make me look quite bad.
With cookies I've never faked it, never had a reason to.
They never lie about what they plan to do.
I always know they'll end up going below the waist,
If only for my thighs - at least I know there'll be nothing done in haste.
Never worried about impregnation from a chocolate fascination - immaculate conception that certainly would be.
Lemon cookies and chocolate cookies and Samoas all for me!
Men and cookies just can't compare, just order the damn things right!
At least I'll have something to do at night,
And if they piss me off I'll just get another box!

Hard Earned Money

Today was a grueling day with the little people. I sent a message to hubby before he left to come home and told him that he HAD to take the little people out - for my sanity. I won't go into all that happened... Except about the geese... Later though... Anyway... When hubby took the little people out that my was golden opportunity to clean the living room that they had taken great pleasure in destoying today.

I started cleaning and then got angry because the kids had so many pieces of games and puzzles on the floor. I had the urge to just throw it all away. Then I thought "What? Throw it away? You paid for it all with your hard earned money!" So I stopped and thought about it. Hard earned money. A concept kids really don't get. I got my first lesson about 'hard earned money' when I was really small, maybe 3 or 4. In a particularly rare and malicious moment I got my daddy's pay check and tore it into pieces. I didn't know WHAT it was, but it was something that was important to daddy and since he made me angry I would take his important thing and tear it up. I got my ass tore up for this 'hard earned money' stuff. Well that's when I learned not to touch daddy's 'hard earned money' Valuable lesson. Later in life I learned that adults talk about this 'money' stuff a lot and I learned to get STUFF I needed this 'money'. The shiny round money was more fun than the paper stuff - at least at that age! I got older and realized that the paper money was the best to have and that it was pretty damn hard to get from the parental units. When I was 11 or 12 I learned how to earn that 'hard earned money'. I baby-sat and did chores to get it, suddenly it meant a lot more. I could get stuff with my 'hard earned money', I really didn't know what the hell was up with the parental units. They worked all the time and always said they didn't have enough 'hard earned money' when I could baby sit for an evening, make $20!!! And that was MORE than enough for things I wanted... Well maybe not MORE than enough, but I could get stuff and that was pretty damn cool - the only thing cooler was when the parental units gave me money (which was RARE). When I became a teen I suddenly had to finance myself. The parentals still took care of food and a place to sleep but I paid for every thing else out of my 'hard earned money' - which really didn't seem all that hard at that time. I had a coshie after school job that made more than most of my friends did - but when you figure I had to buy my own school clothes and school supplies, lunch money, bus fare, etc... That 'hard earned money' didn't seem to last long enough for me. I had the appreciation of 'hard earned money' by the time I moved in my hubby. We lived in the cutest little apartment and bought a cute little car. We didn't make a lot but I started thinking that my parents had no freaking clue how to manage their 'hard earned money' because for some reason hubby and I could do just fine on what we made. Then came our first child. I still had the naive thought that the parents were just bad with money... Although that was getting a less harsh view of that now that I had a child. Then came the second child and everything in between. Now that 'hard earned money' had to go even further than before. And before I knew it I started sounding like my mom when my kids were begging for crap in the stores. No, no, no, no, no, no... It was like a song.
ugh... Back to the mess... I look down at the floor and all the game pieces and puzzle pieces and then it hit me. Fuck it! Picking up all this crap and sorting it all the damn time isn't worth my TIME. Something that is just a bit more valuable than my 'hard earned money'. So I bagged it all up and threw it away. The little people never noticed and I'm not stepping on it today. Sometimes time and sanity are more important than that 'hard earned money'. Life is good.

Salmon Patties And Crabby Patties



I made the salmon patties for hubby, he loved them - said they tasted better than his mothers. I don't know, I wouldn't try it - let me explain...

Anytime anyone mentioned Salmon Patties, I would get this image of June Cleaver-esque women in the 50's serving salmon patties at their fancy-ish dinner parties, setting them down next to a green jello mold with carrot pieces and raisins suspended in the jello. This is not the image that makes me WANT to try salmon patties (or the nasty jello mold either). But, hubby wanted some. I got the recipe and printed it out. Close to time when hubby would be coming home I started making the patties. I got all the ingredients out and opened the can of salmon. Ewwwww.... The smell reminded me of the nasty cheap cat food my grandmother would feed her 20 + cats. My initial impulse was to throw it away. But I didn't. Then I followed the directions - to flake the fish... And there were BONES in it! YIKES! So I pull the bones out (I know now that I didn't need to - at least that's what hubby said, said they were soft and would get smushed up). This only makes the image of CAT FOOD that much more indelible in my mind. I finish the preparation and get the fried up, they look perfect. Hubby said they look just like what his mom used to make. I'm thinking that the little people won't be eating this because Super Girl was helping me open the can and watched me take the bones out and she was thinking it was cat food also. Then I make the crab patties. I put half of a salmon patty and half of a crab patty on each kids plate (with plenty of ketchup). I only put crabby patties on my plate - just could not bring myself to try the salmon (cat food) patties. Much to my surprise the kids ate the cat food... I mean salmon patties! They ate the crabby patties also. I thought to myself that I would have to make more of the salmon patties... That is if I can bring myself to do that!

In summary, dinner was an absolute success but I think I've been traumatized for life and will always feel extreme guilt for feeding my children cat food! (well that's what it looked like to me!) No guilt about feeding hubby cat food - he asked for it.

Recipes

Last night I made the BEST soup ever. A wonderful chicken soup with wontons in it.

I had to use the last of the wonton skins so I figured I'd drop them in some soup. I filled the wonton skins with carrot, mushroom and cabbage (all shredded, lightly spiced and with some olive oil added - microwave for 3 minutes until tender). I dropped the wontons into a pot of boiling chicken stock - I had some that I had made the other day, I hadn't finished with the seasoning so I added a bit of powdered bouillon to give it a richer flavor (I usually take the time to reduce my stock). In the stock I added the rest of a head of green cabbage, some sliced carrots and mushrooms. It was all done in less than 30 minutes and it was wonderful. The little people of course wouldn't eat it (brats). I had the last of the soup with half a sandwich for lunch today. mmmm...

Tonight I'm making Salmon Cakes for hubby. Yuck. I don't like salmon and I've never made salmon cakes. I found a highly rated recipe on a site and I'll be trying that one. I think I'll be making some crab cakes for myself and we'll see if the little people will eat any of this.

Not much else to write about...

Princess Tea Party

Saturday after work I took the little people to a friends house for a play date. My friend's little girl doesn't have many girls to play with in her neighborhood. I found Super Girl's long lost twin. They were both so hyper and excited to be playing. They jumped on the trampoline, they played with the dogs, they played dress up, both ate the sandwiches but only after removing the cheese, they both just ate the frosting part of the pink cake, they played with make up (oh that one had me regretting not having my camera with me - it was a RIOT), they played Barbie and both of them LOVE the movie Spirited Away. It was cute, neither wanted the fun to end. When it was time to go the little people and Grace had this very cute group hug and then held down Gracie's big brother to give him hugs and kisses. hehehe...

Young And Stupid

Why is it that the statement 'young and stupid' is usually the case? I suppose that is better than just being 'stupid'. Unfortunate for my young-male-relative-who-I-won't-name he completely fits the Young and Stupid category. I love him to death, really I do, but I can't believe exactly HOW stupid he can be... I'm not sure being YOUNG explains it all. He and his friends have various blogs and web pages that they leave updates on. I find them from time to time and read up on what the Young and The Stupid are doing. And I am rarely disappointed in the stupid antics of he and his imbecile friends. Recently they threw lit firecrackers on the balcony of someone who had thrown a coke can at them for talking (loudly) while sitting at the pool of an apartment complex - this was 3 AM when dumb and dumber did this. Recently someone showed me a web page that my not so bright relative had. He had a profile on Yahoo, and his profile picture is.. uh... Well... His um... You know... His ... ya know... His member... Yeah really. He has a profile that is "(insert name)'spenis" and it's his a picture of his penis. Brilliant. This boy is a fucking genius. I laughed so hard when this was shown to me. One would think that he would know better than to do something like that... Especially attaching his own NAME to the page. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

A Moment Of Silence Please

We watched 'The Last Days Of Elvis' on E! Tonight. It was very sad... No really it was... And that's not just my redneck-trailer-trash-velveeta-eating-polyester-wearing-big-haired-Elvis-worshiping-southern genes speaking, it really was a tragic story. I remember when Elvis died, I was just a little kid - my birthday had passed just 5 days previously (but I think my parents were telling me it was the coming weekend so we could celebrate later and since I was little I had no freaking idea they were conning me) - I was outside thinking about my birthday when my uncle (the one that turned out to be the particularly stupid-self destructive jack-ass of the family... hmmm... Coincidence?) came outside and said that Elvis was dead. My thought was "Huh? So? My birthday is coming up!" Then I went back to playing and wondering if daddy would take us to a theme park and if I was suddenly big enough to ride the "You Must Be THIS Tall To Ride This Ride" rides. But I do remember it and I always remember that moment around my birthday. *sigh* anyway, it was sad that a man who was so influential in music history died such a sad, pathetic, lonely and embarrassing death.

Unbelievable!

I'm am shocked! Shocked I tell you! Just appalled! I am NOT believing that there is only ONE Elvis movie on tonight! And it's one I've already suffered through... I mean already viewed. Sheesh! Where are these people's priorities???? We will have to settle for an Elvis documentary instead. What is the world coming to?

Rambling

Shit I'm still here, I've just been to busy to write. I can't believe it's already Thursday (The birthday of The King - Elvis). I usually plan my Elvis celebration but I have not done that! YIKES! What am I going to do? Who's going to bring the KFC and mash potatoes! I can not allow my children to loose their heritage by NOT celebrating (trailer trash-Elvis worshiping-Velveeta eating heritage, I'm pure pedigreed redneck)! I need to find an Elvis movie for viewing tonight! Must download the entire collection of Elvis' Greatest hits and a nice selection of tributes to Elvis! Must find polyester sequined and rhinestone pant suit to wear! So little time! Good Gravy - What will I do in such short time??? I'm not even sure I have stuff to make fried peanut butter and 'nanna sandwiches!!!

OK, yeah that's a little crazy... We really do 'Elvis Day' and usually do get KFC to eat while suffer through watching an Elvis movie.

Jack Frost

Can kiss my ass! It's freezing here! Oh... Well maybe he already has kissed my ass... Hence the icicles hanging from the cheeks! It's 26 degrees here. Ick. Brrrrrrr.... My toes are cold again. My cat is sleeping on a heating pad (no it's not all that cold in the house, my cat is sensitive to the cold that's all - read spoiled). OK, I'm off to go bundle myself in my quilt and drink hot chocolate.

Really Super Girl

Today was spent in utter chaos - well actually just the afternoon - and really only from 1:30 - 3:30 pm. I had wait that long in a room full of wild children to get Super Girl her shots. Short staff was the reason I believe for the torureous wait. The worst part is that some people of a certain ethnic group tend to NOT discipline their children. When we got there the group of wild animals... I mean children was bout 6 or 8 including the little people, they were in the area that had a large wooden box thing with pegs and beads and a chalk board thing the kids could play with. There were also two kid side tables and chairs back there also. The natives... I mean kids... Played relatively quietly for about 20 minutes then various helions... Kids... Started to run around the room - this included the little people. I grabbed the little people and told them in no uncertain terms what I would do to them if they did not quiet down and stop running. One other mother tried to deal with her monster (kid) but he really wasn't paying any attention to her and she wasn't being very consistent, so he kept running and screaming through the room. Fabulous. Eventually MORE people came and a few left, meaning MORE kids. Ugh. Two little boys were even more undisciplined than the other child (who by now had left). The parent of these boys did absolutely NOTHING - not even when they were standing on the table and at one time stomping on the table. I was getting pissed about this and was very near to grabbing both brats and giving them a much deserved ass-whipping. The little people by this time had been made to sit with me and taken out of the chaos and destruction - much to their disappointment. We finally got called back. Super Girl was up for shots - 3 shots. I had already prepared her for this by letting her know she was getting shots and yes they would hurt, but it would only feel like a pinch - a hard pinch and it would be quick. She was ready for her shots. She got the first in her thigh, no tears or anything. The second was in her left arm, again no tears - not even a flinch. The third one the nurse told me that it would hurt and to make sure and hold her arm still. Nothing, she didn't cry or whine or even say 'ow!' Not even tears in her eyes. The nurse was so stunned that she didn't cry, she said that she's never had another 4 year old get the shots and NOT cry. I was so proud of her. We went by the dollar store right after to reward her - she got a $1 pack of Barbie accessories (the ultimate gift for a 4 year old girl).

That really ended up taking a huge chunk from my day. I did get the dishes done and the living room straightened but I didn't get much else done. *sigh* I guess that's what tomorrow is for. Ugh.

Tired now, heading for bed early. Night all.

Brrrr..... Winter Weather...

WTF? Why is it cold now? Don't give me that "are you an idiot?" look, I'm asking a reasonable question. Saturday the temperatures got to 80 degrees and we turned on the air conditioner in the town house. Sunday it was about 60 degrees when I left for work, it was down to 50 degrees by the time I got to my second hospital an hour later and it was dipping below that when I got home at 1:30 pm! Today it was a frosty 23 degrees this morning and it's risen to a mere 35 degrees here at 11:30 am. The weather service predicts that the high today will be around 38 or 40 degrees. This is a trend that will continue with the highs in the 50's and the lows in the high 30's by the end of the week. Brrr. This is Texas! I don't like when the weather drops down this cold. I like my winters to be in the 60's with lows in the 50's - 20's and 30's is just to freaking cold!

Awww.. I'm just being a baby because my toes are cold.

Moo Moo Moo

I have the car today, so I had to drop hubby off at work. On the way back home Super Girl started singing to the cows in the fields (as I've mentioned a while ago, hubby works out in the middle of no where) - "Good morning to you, cows! Good morning to you cows! Moo, moo, moo, moo-moo!" So damn cute!

Man Trouble - Solved

I took everyone's advice and told this boy that I am not interested in him. I did it very nicely and he said there were no hard feelings.

Thanks for all the advice.

Men...

Alright I'm soliciting advice from people. OK, the guy that I met and thought he wasn't my type at ALL. Well he keeps trying to contact me - luckily I didn't give him my phone number, just an e-mail address. He REALLY liked me and wants to go out. I already said he reminded me of my brother (which is no compliment) in hopes that he would get the subtle rejection and not force me to tell him to get bent. It's not working. What should I do? I'm not yet ready to move to a new city and change my name and become part of the witness protection plan so something a bit less drastic is what I'm looking for.

What should I do? I don't want to be a total bitch, but I do want this yahoo to get the idea that I'm not interested in him.

Fabulous New Years Day Party

Yesterday was incredibly busy and incredibly fun. I got up before everyone else and checked my e-mail then got dressed and put some make-up on as I knew it would be far to busy of a day to get that done if I waited. The little people woke at 9 am! (the night before they went to bed very late after celebrating their cousins b-day at his house, Cabbage Patch got to go to Chucky Cheese with daddy but Super Girl had to stay home from that part as she was being a BRAT) I sent them up to immediately wake their daddy. Hubby stumbled down the stairs moments later still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he appreciated having the opportunity to sleep in - I said he was welcome, I had considered waking him at 7 am but had decided to let him sleep until the little people got up. By 9:30 AM I had him and Super Girl out the door with a list of things to get at the store as I headed to the kitchen to wash dishes and start the food preparations. It was nearly 11 am when he arrived home loaded down like a pack mule. Hubby headed upstairs then to start cleaning the upstairs bath as I got into full swing in the kitchen. When he finished that I told hubby to get the table cleared off and ready as I was running out of room in the kitchen for the food I had prepared. I had prepared the black eyed pea dip and baked a good luck Greek Coin cake the night before and had baked chocolate chip cookies while hubby shopped. I got the lentils and sausage started on a back burner and started warming the oil so I could fry the potstickers. The deviled eggs were quick to make as were the veggie tray and cheese and cracker tray. After I fried the potstickers I went to get the plates and plastic-ware out of the closet as hubby fried the corn chips for the queso. We had finished all the cooking and cleaning as our first guest arrived with drinks, ice, cups (something we had forgotten) and grapes. And our first guest was a tall dark haired man - I made sure of that as it's lucky to have your first visitor of the year as a tall dark haired man. I had already sent him and his girlfriend an e-mail explaining that they had better not be late and that Martin had to come inside before Angie. Well it was just part of the whole Lucky New Year Party theme.



Our next guest arrived shortly after the first two (who were right on time). We started playing board games and noshing. Our next guests arrived with their little boy about 3 pm. The girls were thrilled to have a little one to play with. They left after about an hour and a half and our final guests had still not arrived by then. They did call to say they were close and would be there soon. They had a busy day and Peter had lost his wallet so they were even later than they usually are. They finally arrive, we play another game and one of our guests says his good-byes. We play Guestures and the non-blond team beat the crap out of the three blonds. *snicker* Then it was time to put the little people to bed. We played a game that was called 'Talk Dirty To Me' or something like that. It's where you replace words in a story with suggestive words. It was amusing.

Our guests finally left at 11:45 pm! It was great! We have the most wonderful friends! I'm so tired today. *sigh* And... This is kind of funny... Wednesday hubby had rushed around to the Honeybaked store to get a ham for the party with a gift certificate he got from work (I had wanted him to get some smoked turkey breast but told him to get what he wanted) and guess what got forgotten yesterday? hehehe... Don't see any ham on my table! Oink!

Sows?

Deck the halls with sows and jolly! La-la-la-la La La La LA!

That's what Super Girl is belting out at the top of her lungs right now. I had to stop her and ask exactly what she was decking the halls with, then after she sang it again for me I asked 'Sows?' uh-hu, 'And Jolly?' uh-huh. OK. I let her keep singing. Hubby stopped her and corrected her for some reason - I thought 'Sows and Jolly' worked just fine. Oink.

MOGU Loves You!

D - Mogu loves me more than you. :oP

My sister left her Mogu here yesterday by accident. I don't know if I'll be able to give it back to her now that I like it so much. Although after looking at the website and seeing how many different kinds of Mogu there are, I probably will. I want a Mogu. I want many Mogu.

D- I'm thinking the pink Mogu square pillow will be JUST like that pink pillow that I loved so much and lost in the fire... Now I have something new to obsess about.

Back to cleaning.

New Years Crazies

New Years is going to be crazy as well. Today is our nephew's birthday so this evening we are heading to Chucky Cheese for his birthday then to their house for the evening. Tomorrow we are hosting a New Years day party so I have to finish cleaning my house - and it looks like a freaking disaster area right now - of course, I have kids how else would it look after I spend half the day cleaning? *sigh* If my kids were super mutant super heroes (villains maybe?) their super powers would be chaos and disaster. I'm so lucky. Despite the fact that I'll be cleaning and cooking until the moment we leave for nephew's birthday and cooking and cleaning until people show up (1:10 or 1:30 pm - Hubby sent out the invite with a little typo hehehe), I'm looking forward to people being over tomorrow.

One More Thing That Pisses Me Off

People who make the comment that they wish they could claim their dog/cat/bird/pet as a tax deduction. And people who say that their 'PET' is 'just like a child to me'. I worked with a psychotic cat woman (she was my age, not some 60+ year old mostly recluse which was kind of odd). I love my pets but they are NOT like children, never have been and never will be. Only people who have never had children could say such absurd bullshit. I'm sorry that single childless people feel they get screwed over on taxes. Have these people ever stopped to consider all that goes into raising a child? Not just the money but the hours of effort. The reason that people with children get tax breaks is because WE NEED them, maybe not every single person NEEDS the breaks as much as some do, but the fact is that it takes money to raise children.

Pets are not children, so just deal with it. I swear I will bitch slap anyone who has the balls to tell me to my face how Fluffy is 'just like a child' to them. Fuck, get some therapy. Until I meet the person who had to endure 36 painful, grueling and exhausting hours to get said pet then have their pet taken to ICU for a week while you wait and watch hoping that every day is the lucky day you get to take your new bundle of joy home, have sleepless nights as you worry that they will die from SIDS the first few months, then have to get up with your new one every night for the first year, pay several hundred a month to have someone watch your little one while you are at work, have to take time off when your little one gets sick and have to take them to the Dr to spend even more money, get up several times at night just to make sure they are 'still breathing' because they have a cold, spend more money on clothes for them than you ever imagined spending on yourself... (OK Judy... Take a deep breath... ) Anyway... When I meet the pet owner who has done all that - I'll say "Yes, your pet is like your child." And even at that, they still won't be JUST like a child. I mean if my child gets sick, I sure as hell won't EVER consider putting them to sleep. If I get tired of my child I won't EVER consider taking them to the pound. And BEST of all, my KIDS love me much more than my cats will EVER have the capacity to. Kids are better than pets anyday. Not like Fluffy and Rover are going to take care of you when you get old.

OK, enough... I'm just ranting...

STARS Game

Hot Damn! That was so much fun! The game ended in a tie, but watching from a suite ROCKS! Hubby's company had catering in the suite, food, drinks, cookies and BEER. Fuckers who take tickets to events like this and don't show up suck. Several people took tickets and didn't show up to the game. Assholes. My sister could have gone with us. My brother in law would have sold his left nut to go with us.

Anyway - I HAD FUN!

Sick Again

WTF? I'm sick again. I've been having this stomach thing on and off since Friday night. I ended up not getting much sleep that night and thought it was just my reflux. I went to work on Saturday but felt not so great by the end of my work day. Hubby ordered us the BEST Chinese food on Saturday night because I didn't want to cook - he got me EXTRA spicy garlic chicken. Not the smartest thing for me to order, but I LOVE spicy Chinese food, I mean LOVE IT. This was so spicy hubby just tasted some of the sauce and absolutely refused to even touch the chicken. I was sweating just three bites into the dish, but it was soooo good. I had a glass of milk with me so I could cool down my mouth every so often then eat some more. I know it's crazy but it's like an addiction once I get this stuff. I ate all I wanted that night then had some for breakfast - it's even good cold! I had the rest for lunch yesterday. Ahhh it was good. I felt icky yesterday morning after I headed to work, but it passed and I worked the whole day. Later yesterday evening I started feeling tired then not feeling well so I didn't finish my dinner (chicken and shrimp gumbo for hubby). Now I'm tired again and didn't get a good nights sleep. My sister is an angel of mercy today, she happends to be in the area for work and came by with donuts for my kids for breakfast and has them with her for about an hour right now. Ahhh... Blessed peace. So I'm going to go nap so I feel good for tonight's hockey game.

DALLAS STARS
Guess who's going to a hockey game tonight? I'm so excited! I LOVE hockey! I even canceled a date to go to this game.

The funny part of this is that when hubby told me that he had hockey tickets I didn't think they were for the Dallas Stars, I thought they were for the Frisco Tornados since one of his boss's has season tickets to the Frisco minor league baseball and hockey teams and we occasionally would get tickets to the games. I didn't even ask who the tickets were for, I didn't care, I enjoyed the last Tornados game. So I go ahead and cancel my date and we schedule for a babysitter. Then yesterday while hubby was talking to his sister-in-law about his nephew's upcoming birthday I hear him say we are going to the Stars game tonight. After he got off the phone I said to him that I didn't realize the tickets were for the Stars and not the Tornados. Then he tells me that not only are they Stars tickets, but that we will be in a suite watching the game! Woohoooo! Hell I would have taken tickets in the nose bleed section but this ROCKS! I'm so excited!!!!

Denmark???

Read This story on Denmark the worlds largest sperm bank! Ya know what that tells me? There are a LOT of lonely Danes just whacking off! What struck me as funny is that the donors "are paid $40.50 for each donation." $40.50 to whack off! Yikes! Here in Dallas a guy has to pay for his own trip to the porn shop 'viewing room' and get's no compensation for his *ahem* donation.

Actually it's a pretty cool article once you get past the snickering and giggling of picturing Danish college boys going into booths with naughty magazines to make 'donations'. Sadly lack of anonymity in many countries is killing this fertility solution for many people.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
So Let Someone Else Do It For You!

Go HERE to check out this hilarious e-bay listing (it has bids too!)! D I thought of you when I read this - I could have charged you when I told your ex-hubby you wanted a divorce! ;o)

My Garden

My retarded tomato plant has finally bore me fruit!

Tiny but tasty fruit.

Holiday Rush

Everything has been insane around here. That's why I hate the holidays. Yes I'm a Scrooge, a humbug, a Grinch the closer to Christmas it gets. I despise shopping among the crazy feeding frenzy of gift buying that happens at the malls. Don't get me wrong, I love shopping, just not when the malls are packed with the holiday lunacy. I dislike standing in lines that stretch all the way back to the other side of the store, the decorations loose their luster and just look tacky and the holiday music most stores play continually from Halloween until New Years day make me want to buy a gun. Even with all that I still must venture out and endure the torture of the holiday mania (no one delivers groceries in my area any more!)... But I digress.

Unexpectedly to me, hubby had the day before Christmas off. I did not find this out until Tuesday so I was sorely unprepared for him being home that day. He assured me that him being home the day before Christmas meant that I would have the rare and sweet opportunity to sleep in on Wednesday morning. This is something I took to heart and made plans for. Hubby got off work early on Tuesday then headed off to visit a friend, the little people and I had a nice quiet, uneventful evening full of holiday specials. They went to bed with only one trip up the stairs for me to make threats of great awfulness to get them to go on to sleep. Hubby got home around 1 am and I chuckled to my self as I heard him lock the door and head upstairs to bed. I thought "and you will be getting up early with the little people... hehehe..." Bright and early as usual the little people burst into my room to wake me. Cabbage Patch yelling "Wake up mamma! Wake up!" I told them to go wake their daddy and close my door. The door closed and my eye lids followed shortly there after. About an hour and a half later I hear hubby being upset with the kids, the kids being relegated to the sofa for time outs and him grumbling about something, I figure it's time for me to get up and see what damage has been done as I figured the little people had ignored my command to wake their father. Now I want you to for just a moment remember that wireless commercial where the woman is saying "Why would I say 'Flour the children'?" and you see the aunt/babysitter/caretaker/warden sitting on the sofa with two children covered in flour. Something similar to this is what I see when I enter the living room. The little people are sitting on the couch leaving large white powder marks on my navy blue sofa. Cabbage Patch is so white she looks like a ghoul. The little people were in the living room with a bag of powdered sugar. Luckily the mess on them and the tracks on the carpet and sofa were about the worst of it all. Most of the sugar was in two bowls. *sigh* After vacuuming the living room and sweeping the kitchen it was off to the bath for the kids for scrub.

After baths and getting the little people dressed we fed them breakfast which we realized was a bad idea since it was far to close to nap time by then. Oh well. Hubby and I discussed gifts for his brother and father and made a list of things to get at the stores. Yes we would have to venture out into the shopping frenzy. We decided on making baskets of Mexican yummies for both and headed off to the stores. The first store was like a mad house. There were people everywhere. We got a giggle at one man who had obviously waited until that day to do ALL of his holiday shopping and had decide that he wasn't going to go to ANY other stores for it. His cart was so full he was having trouble seeing over it to push - he even had things stacked below the cart as well. It was comical. It took us an hour to get $5 worth of things and head to the grocery store. Somehow I managed to misplace the list in the car and after hubby made an initial search that was fruitless we continued to shop with out. We got everything and got out of the store in another hour - and we managed to get everything on the list save two things, one I chose to not get and one we forgot.

Back home and naps for little people. The cooking began. It was much easier than I had anticipated. Even the donuts for Chanukkah (which were the hits of the evening). We lit the candles that night (although I was a bit afraid I would spontaneously combust while lighting them I felt so greasy from frying all the donuts and stuff - yuck). The little people got Barbies for gifts that night, which they enjoyed quite a bit - then started fighting over the shoes and the dresses until I threatened to throw the dolls in the garbage if I heard more fighting... ahhh the holidays are so special.

When the little people finally were asleep, hubby brought in the Christmas presents and we sat on the floor wrapping them, I gave some of the Chanukkah presents up to be wrapped as well. I knew we wouldn't do Chanukkah presents on Christmas (hubby and I had an agreement, no Christmas stuff on the first and last days of Chanukkah and no Chanukkah on Christmas) and since the little people have worked very hard to be EEEEEVIL this holiday season, I ended up with more presents than days of Chanukkah left. He filled their stockings with stuff.

Christmas morning, I got up at 6:30 AM to get ready for work. I got showered and dressed (I ended up spraying to much curl stuff on my hair so it looked nasty) then waited for the little people to wake. The came scampering down the stairs around 7:45 AM. I sent them back up to wake daddy so he wouldn't miss the frightening toy frenzy soon to come. Hubby let them have their stockings while I got the camera ready (had to clear the photos off my card) - in the time it took me to upload the photos they had emptied their stockings and eaten half the chocolate - the area where they were looked like a trash heap! On to the presents. I sat in my recliner and took photos as they tore through the wrappings. It's kind of funny now that they are 4 (almost 5) and 2 and a half. Both of them KNOW that things in brightly colored wrappings are PRESENTS and they LOVE know PRESENTS much be for THEM. We did all of the presents (they didn't get all that much) in about 10 minutes as I had to head off to work.

Work on Christmas. My first hospital didn't have any babies to photo - I hoped this would be a trend and I would have an opportunity to get a nap before we all headed over to the inlaws to do Christmas with them. My second hospital was FULL of babies! Unbelievable! I got there at 9 AM and worked straight through until 3:30 PM. My commission for that day sucked - people just don't buy on Christmas. I got several sympathetic comments from nurses about having to work Christmas - this I found a bit amusing as I really didn't mind being Jewish. I volunteered to work and I got holiday pay, so the sucky commission isn't such a big deal. I got home a little after 4 pm after checking my 3rd hospital - which had no babies either.

At home hubby had expected me home by lunch time and had prepared a lovely lunch of smoked turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, brussle sprouts and rolls. Yum! He had held off feeding the little people or eating as well in the thought that we would all have a nice lunch together. I felt bad that he had waited. I had declined eating at the hospital for free as I knew hubby would have a nice meal waiting (which is not normal for him, he generally 'cooks' a pizza for lunch on Saturdays). I ate lunch then headed for a short (much too short) nap as I was dragging.

Off to the inlaws for Christmas. The little people were thrilled to see their cousin. They were mesmerized by the Christmas tree and had to be told several times to keep their little hands off the ornaments. After about an hour of the kids playing we called them into the living room for presents. Cabbage Patch had the whole concept of presents down by now. She came running into the room and slid on her knees right up to the tree (wood floors) - it was hysterical. Sister-in-law sorted out the presents for each kid then they tore into them like old-ladies at a 75% off sale in Wal-Mart. I was amused for the first 30 seconds but started getting pissed with the little people as they tore paper from a package, looked at the package for 30 seconds then dropped for the next thing in line. Grrr... I swear it took less than 2 minutes for them to get through everything - I couldn't even keep track of everything that was there! At that moment, I was really wishing someone had given me the kid-sized dog kennels I had on my wish list. Then they all headed off to play again. In the aftermath I realized that father-in-law had ignored my please to not get the kids much and had in fact gotten them everything I had suggested as examples and more - DVDs (3 in all), several books, a Leap Pad Jr for Super Girl. He also gets the prize this year for getting the two gifts I would gladly douse with gasoline and light I hate them that much but the kids love dearly. These dastardly items are masquerading as books for Cabbage Patch. They in fact are toddler toys made by Satan! One is a Barney music book with a guitar attached that plays music - which is nefarious enough, but it does more. It plays the catchy little kid tunes in what sounds like electric guitar, it has a little button so they can play them note by note and a whaaa-whaa bar that is kind of funny the first few times. I believe this item has already 'disappeared' . The next is a 'book' - The Cat In The Hat book with buttons that make noise. This wouldn't be so bad if not for the voice of Mike Myers. Ugh.

We made it home extremely late (for the little people) after watching my pressie from hubby - The Pirates of The Caribbean! I love this movie! Johnny Depp *pant* *pant*. The little people slept until almost 9 am the next day - something I truly appreciated.

OK, enough for now... Bed time for me.

State Of Texas Insanity

It still puzzles me that this kind of crap goes on here in Texas. Yes I know Texas is full of uptight, prude, hypocritical bible thumping, biggots who are desperatly in need of a blow job - but not many people I know share the same narrow mideset of the Texas Supreme Court. I don't even know what the rational is behind making vibrators illegal! (I do know what the REAL reason is, just to be able to crack down on all of the places that sell sex paraphanalia because uptight folks hate to think of people having fun with sex). It's rediculous to go to a sex store and buy $100 worth of hardcore porn DVD's but to have to buy a 'back massager' to enjoy your movies with. Sheesh. Why oh why does Texas care what people do in the bedroom?

Man Troubles

What the hell? Am I giving off pheremones lately? I mean STRONG pheremones. I've been on the quest for a real boyfriend and have been going through the interview process with several men. So far the guy with the horse is the front runner. But I've also suddenly had my phone ringing all the time with men from my past! Sheesh if they don't want to be my 'boyfriend' then they want me to be their mistress! Yes I really did have one tell me that he wanted me to be his mistress! Have another guy who wants me to be his girlfriend - yet I can't remember his first name! It's far to late to ask now - no matter, I don't want to be his girlfriend anyway - he's married! I did a short interview before shopping on Friday and realized that although the guy was very nice he just wasn't my type and never would be. Well today he sends me a message telling me how I was so beautiful and exactly what he hoped for and all that he expected and he had so much fun in our short meeting, hoped I did also, wanted to kiss me but didn't think that was appropriate (damn right he was!) yadda, yadda, yadda... Eh... No... Not going to happen. I also get a call from someone from way back who is the tortured soul guy - he's telling me how he misses me but that it's best if we don't talk now because he has so much he wants to tell me but now is not the time... That he loves me and that scares him but since we can't be together right now this is best, yadda, yadda, yadda. He's a nice guy, but very dark and brooding - very 1986-89 Breakfast Club-almost Goth-The Cure fan type of guy. Someone I would have definitely hooked up with in high school, but since I'm well past High School, this whole deep- depressing-brooding-tortured soul persona is a major turn off. I've dated my share of suicidal psychos - no more! See... This is why it's just easier for me to just hook up with my sancho - it's just sex, there is none of the rest of this shit. Ugh! Someone give me strength.

Holiday Letters

I've been getting a trickle of Holiday cards this year (yes Jayne I did get yours - LOVED it! Yours will be late, my apologies). In some there are these letters that summarize the year. I've considered doing this but have thought better of it... Why? Well why don't I just show you - this is how my letter would read:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

2003 started with some of the major issues from 2002 having been resolved - thank G*d for good lawyers! In February Super Girl turned 4 - wow, where does the time fly? We planned a small party here at the town house, it was originally planned for the kids to feed the ducks at the lake but the weather was unexpectedly COLD so it was cupcakes at home with us. March brought more changes as Hubby was laid off from his job. Woohoo. Gotta love the economy. April was tense as hubby searched for work - thankfully he got a severance package and could collect unemployment. We celebrated Passover and for the FIRST time ever the kids made it through the ENTIRE Haggadah! We took the kids over to hubby's brother's house for Easter. Whew! It's a lot of work having a multi-cultural family - we seem to celebrate every possible holiday. Super Girl stepped in dog doo while searching for eggs. This made the EEEEEVIL adults laugh hard. May brought hubby's 38th birthday and guess what he got for his birthday? He got a contract job! Yes he actually started his job on his birthday - We all breathed a sigh of relief as his severance package had just ended. In June we celebrated our 9th anniversary - can't believe we made it this far! I bought myself a cool plate, Blue Willow - it's actually one of THE 9th anniversary gifts on the anniversary list. It's lovely, now I want a whole set of Blue Willow stuff. July we went to hubby's brother's house for the 4th. The little people and their cousin enjoyed the sparklers in the back yard - hubby set his brother's lawn on fire though hehehe... that must be karma balancing from way back - luckily bro-in-law was prepared for such an event and had the hose out. We also celebrated Cabbage Patch's 2nd Birthday here! It was hot as hell so the plans to feed the ducks were once again put on hold as hubby's father and step-mother were planning to attend the party and I knew they couldn't handle the heat. We had great fun as the kids ran up and down the stairs and ate lots of cake - which meant, lots of red velvet cake crumbs on the carpet... What the hell was I thinking? The next day I had the great task of scrubbing red spots off the carpet - what fun (shit I hate carpeting). Hubby's job went permanent. Woohoo! That was kind of an interesting turn of events, he was working payroll while someone was on leave, then when his contract was set to end he got offered the other job because the had JUST fired that person! HAHAHAHA! August I turned 32 - hubby surprised me with some lovely flowers. I didn't do a fucking thing though. I'm not even sure I talked to my sancho around then... I think that was during the 4 months that we didn't talk... Doesn't matter, I turned 32 - I think hubby had a cake for me at the next game night - got some cute cards, that's all. September - two of our dear friends got married. They make a cute couple. The little people loved the wedding - Cabbage Patch babbled through the ceremony, loudly at that. Thankfully it was a short ceremony. Then they ran around the reception like wild animals. Lucky for them they were dressed so darn cute that no one - save me and hubby, seemed to mind that they couldn't manage to sit for more than 5 minutes at a time (can we say ADD?). We also celebrate Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur, it was a lot of fun - and a lot of work! I didn't get a chance to go to the lake and throw crumbs into the lake though. October was boring, nothing happened, I know I was seeing my Sancho by then and the little people did Halloween, but nothing memorable happened, so let's skip it. November just started the holiday madness. We did Thanksgiving twice - once with hubby's brother and sister in law and other family and friends - I made the turkey which was the best part of the dinner and sister-in-law made the inedible stuff. We did that get together the Saturday before Thanksgiving, then we did it all over again at our town house on Thanksgiving - just had hubby's father and step mother over and I made all of the food, needless to say it was all FABULOUS. December - well that's this month, I've had SARS for two freaking weeks and that has really put my schedule off as I haven't been able to get much done. *sigh* I had planned to make several things for people - ya know, use all my creative energies to make heart felt gifts, but now that it's almost Christmas and I haven't even gotten Holiday cards out, well fuck that - if it's not done by the time I see you, you are not getting a pressie from me! But I thought about it, and as we all know 'It's the thought that counts' - at least that the bullshit people who get good gifts tell people who get shitty gifts. :o) Super Girl had her first dance recital the beginning of December. It was super cute. Some of my family came to see it - even my Grandmother who I haven't talked to since my car got totaled last year. So I guess the family has gotten over the whole car thing... Well almost everyone. My uncle still won't speak to me. Don't care really, he's an ass. My grandmother and aunt let it go because they wanted to see my kids. Ahhhh... Nothing like the disfunctional family get together to make the holidays special. We started lighting our Chanukkah candles on the 19th - the girls are LOVING this, Super Girl now wants to say the candle lighting prayer with me each night. Sooo cute. We only did the latkes one night as only half of the freaking family liked my efforts. I absolutely hate frying things and was pissed with the half who hated the latkes after all the trouble I went through (I cut my thumb on the grater!). Anyway - no more latkes for us, we'll celebrate the miracle of the oil in other ways... Chips... Chips are made with oil and they come in a bag already cooked! Woohoo!

Things that happened but I can't remember when... We got a new car, had to really, the Taurus just fucking died on the toll road. I had to get towed home late at night after work one day. Sucked. We now have a cute little Chevrolet Prism - love it. Unfortunately we now have a car payment - boo! My sancho and I have been seeing each other now for what will be 2 years soon. Woohoo! Since I'm his mistress, do I have to give him a present? Eh, who knows. My sister got a new vehicle - a pimped out Ford SUV - it's very nice. When she comes to the hood to visit me, she's the most popular person in the parking lot as all the project kids come out to gawk at her ride. My nephew joined the army, worked hard to find a way to get a medical discharge from the army before he even finished boot camp, came home, got thrown out of the house by his mother, lived with a friend for a bit, got thrown out by him, lived with his (useless) sister for a short while before she told him to hit the bricks and... Well I think you have the idea of what's going on with him. We are all VERY proud of the choices he has made recently, VERY proud. I stopped taking Zoloft sometime this year. I can't remember exactly when. I'm fine without it, I hardly ever threaten people's lives these days... I mean not a REAL threat that is... Ya know it's kind of weird getting off something like that, after you stop you really feel like "Holy shit! I'm a nut! I need that!" Then as time goes by you feel fine without it - I don't know it it's that you truly don't need it or your own psychosis just fools you into thinking that you just don't need it. At any rate, I'm fine to be out in public these days. And of course we are still broke dicks here in this house. Even though hubby got another job fairly quick, he's making quite a bit less - although MORE than what he would be making with unemployment. I can't complain to much, we have everything we need.

Happy holidays.
Love
Judy

See... Who the hell would want to read about that? Depressing not festive. *sigh*

SARS UPDATE!!

I'm feeling better FINALLY! It's about damn time too! I've fallen so far behind in just about EVERYTHING. Now I need to bust my ass and get things finished. *sigh*

Work Crap
This past weekend was our gaming weekend. We played about an hour or so past when we usually did and that left me freaking tired on Sunday when I had to go to work. I was supposed to meet my boss at work at 7:45 am to go over some 'training' materials (been there 2 and a half years and all of the sudden it's important for me to get trained???). I was there at 7:45 am but my boss didn't show up - the bitch. Sunday was just as busy if not more so than Saturday so I was not the least bit understanding of this. She called later that evening saying that she was *cough* *cough* sick and was sorry she didn't make it up to the hospital - let me correct myself - she called after I sent her an e-mail wanting to know why she didn't show up. Waste of carbon...

Happy Chanukkah!

Tonight started the festival of lights! And everything went off without a hitch! Well not really... Let me tell you about the day.

I couldn't locate my menorah last night so I knew I would have to go get one for tonight. I had planned to head to a local place this morning with the little people but they were Pure EEEEEVIL today so I gave them time outs, threatened to take down their Christmas tree and made them clean up all the paper they scattered around the living room instead of take the trip to the store. I knew that hubby would be home early today as he has something going on in his sinus and half of his face is swelled up like the elephant man ("I'm not an animal!"), so I figured I would have time to head out to procure the menorah and a few other things for tonight when he got home. I was also expecting a phone call from a friend around 12:30 PM so I put the little people down for naps at noon and sat down to read my e-mail. 12:30 PM came and went with no call from said friend. A guy wanting to be my boyfriend did call though and we chatted for a bit then decided that we would meet for a few minutes before I did my shopping. This is a great way to meet someone without it being a 'date' - see if you meet and this person is a LOSER you can always say "Well I really do need to get going, I have to get 'fill in the blank' done before 6 pm" and leave, and if you do hit it off well then having a time limit will keep you (me really) from being a complete slut and going right to sex - there by making you (me) look less slutty as you can count the first meeting as a 'DATE' and when you skip the movie, skip dinner and head right for 'desert' you can at least say you didn't do it on your FIRST date - at least that's my rationalization. Anyway - I'm glad I didn't actually set up a real 'DATE' because this guy is just NOT for me. I had a feeling he wasn't from a few comments he made about my hubby - just a hint to prospective boyfriends - it's all good to tell me how beautiful you think I am and fawn over me, but when you insult my hubby for being gay your just pissing me off, hubby may not be my lover and we may only be 'husband & wife' in a technical sense but he's my best friend, my room mate and the father of my children and I'll kick so ass before I let someone bash him for being gay. But anyway, this guy made a couple of comments that came off wrong to me - but only a couple, I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt since he had put so much effort into this - no chemistry, no sparks, not going to work. Oh well, too bad for him. Luckily that didn't take long, then I headed over to the store to look for a menorah - the store was FREAKING PACKED. I did some shopping for the little people and headed to another store - also packed. I did not find a menorah but I did find some nice candle holders that were pretty damn cheap and would work fine for tonight. I ended up picking up some stuff to make latkes as well - I figured that I would be pressed for time so I got stuff to make them quick. When I get home the little people had been EEEEEEVIL. They had gotten a hold of the India ink AGAIN! AAAAHHHH! I had that hidden! Anyway this time they poured it on the floor in my bedroom. Hubby was very unhappy with the little people. I was down right pissed and started yelling at them right away. They spent quite a while in time outs tonight while I went to clean my carpet. I managed to get almost all of the ink out of my carpet - a miracle on Chanukkah! (and what a coincidence that a woman named Judith was there to help it along... This Judith didn't have to lop off someone's head though!) After some intense carpet scrubbing, I headed to the kitchen to make latkes. I grated some zucchini and managed to cut my thumb knuckle pretty bad in the process. Then I fried the latkes. After all the work to make them, Super Girl didn't try them, she claimed they were to 'spicy' (they were far from spicy) - what a gentile she is, Cabbage Patch ate hers up (of course the one with the good Hebrew name likes Jewish food) and hubby didn't like them (gentile) - so only half of us appreciated the trouble I went to to make the traditional food to celebrate the miracle of the oil. If I had made donuts they would have eaten them... Maybe next year. Because the little people were PURE EEEEVIL today they didn't get any Chanukkah presents today nor did they get any gelt - ah well, they have 7 more days, I'm sure at least one day they will be GOOD. ;o) At least the evening ended well for me, my Sancho called and since I am finally OVER my SARS(cold) I made time for a booty call - mmmm, mmmm, good.

Slipping By In A Blur

That's how my days feel right now. Tomorrow night starts Chanukkah and I'm not prepared. Next week is Christmas and again I'm not prepared. This damn SARS (cold) which I am finally starting to get rid of has really thrown my schedule off. I haven't gotten my holiday cards done, I haven't done much in the way of shopping (not that I'm doing much shopping) and I haven't done much decorating. I broke down and bought some holiday cards to send out since I would not have enough time to make any. They are on the tacky side, but they were really the only holiday cards and not strictly Christmas Cards I could find. I guess I'll stuff a short note into the cards to make up for me not making them myself. I'm disappointed about that as I really did want to make them myself. I have letters I desperately need to get mailed as well and just haven't printed them yet (that is super lame of me). I still have laundry to do, I need to take holiday pictures of the little people and decide what to get who for the holidays (I'm hoping for a Chia pet for me). I'm frustrated. I'm running out of time to get things done. I've spent so much time and energy being sick that I haven't gotten things done like I needed to. *sigh*

Return Of The King

Last night we went to see that! Woohoo! I liked it a lot. The theater was PACKED and everyone in the group had to sit apart. But, I liked the movie. It was intense. One scene made hubby jump. hehehehe...

Pink Christmas Tree

I finally put the Christmas Tree up for the girls. Hubby had purchased a tiny pink Barbie tree for them last weekend. hehehe... They love it. I got some lights for it today. I'll post some pictures of it a little later when it's all decorated.

Lunch With A Hottie

Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend I used to work with. I had not seen him since before I got pregnant with Cabbage Patch. He still looked as HOT as ever. He's probably the hottest man I know in person and he's partnered to an incredibly hot man as well. Sheesh why are all the hot ones gay? I was his new house - which is FAAAABULOUS! I mean really. I've never met anyone other than well off middle aged gay men who have houses as nice as this. The little people were in awe of the Christmas Trees in his house and all the cute decorations his partner had out. The little people adored my friend and he adored them. We had a nice lunch of pizza and he loved the present of the beaded wine glasses. We talked about Winston and how much of a shock it was that he passed so quickly. It was so nice to see him and it made me realized I really missed working with him.

Dead Fish Swimming

Damn it! Looks like another of my fish is having swim bladder issues. I really like this one, she's one of my fancy goldfish. The other fish I got at that same time has already died. This is pissing me off and has made me swear off buying fish from PetSmart anymore. So far most of the fish I have purchased from PetSmart have gone on to the aquarium in the sky, but my Walmart fish have gone fine. For some reason I can't seem to find a store locally that sells many varieties of fancy goldfish so I end up going to PetSmart because they have a slightly larger selection than Walmart. My only hope is that this issue will work it self out because there's nothing that can be done for this.

Speaking of fish, I did get another fish after Aegir died. I got a red and white common goldfish. I haven't announced him yet as I haven't decided on a name for him. He's kind of fancy being that he's read and white, but he's a common goldfish so I'm torn as to whether to give him a Nordic name as all the other fancy goldfish or give him a common name like the other commons I have. I've narrowed down the names to either Balder (The god of light, joy, purity, beauty, innocence, and reconciliation) for a Nordic name - although I'm not keen on the fact that Balder was killed by Lokki - read about it here (hubby had suggested that I call him Aegir II but I don't think it's good to name a fish after the fish he's replacing), and for his common name I've decided on Bubba. It fits with my commons who are Bubbles, Pappa Bear and Mamma Bear. Anyway, Balder-Bubba is the tiniest fish in the tank currently and seems to have figured out that he has to get to the food quick before Thor eats it all. He's not as interesting as some of the others who have odd quirks - like Thor who bangs on the side of the tank with the rocks when he wants food or Bubbles who likes to ride the air pump bubbles like a ride and likes to blow large bubbles at the surface or Valkyrie who likes to sit at the bottom of the tank with her tail fin in the stream of bubbles. Yes I know, I'm a geek, I like my fish... I obsess over my fish. Too bad Spike is gone - he/she was a great psychotic fish.

Torn

Today is the funeral for a dear friend I worked with. I'm not going to the funeral and for that I am feeling more than a little bit guilty. His wake was last night and I just could not make it to that due to the meeting I had to attend. I feel a bit of resentment for that, but what could I do...I guess it really doesn't matter that much anyway since I really dislike wakes. I never know what to do or anything, funerals are much easier as they all pretty much go the same. You come in, sit and listen to the deceased be eulegized, you pay your respects to the family and go. Wakes are harder, I never know how long to stand around and look somber. Well that is except for things for my own family, I know how to handle that - just follow my sister's lead - and if it's family, well I know them and most everyone there so the awkward feeling is not there. Anyway... I digress... I'm sad I can't go to the funeral, I really would like to pay respects to his family and say goodbye. Part of me is glad I can't go though, I don't want my last memories of Winston to be his funeral or worse his body in a box (he died of cancer so I really do fear how he would look - it took me a couple of years to get the images of my mothers last days out of my head). It would just be sad to have my last memories of someone who was so full of life to be of him dead. So I won't go, I'll feel a bit guilty and I'll send a card to his family expressing my sorrow for his passing, although most likely I'll be at a lost for words to express my feelings and sign it with 'Deepest Sympathies' and be done with it. Sadly it won't express what I want to say or how I'll always smile when I remember him ordering dessert before his entree or how when I see Blue Bell ice cream I'll hear his twangy Texas drawl say how it's the only ice cream he'll eat, how coachly looking men in sans-a-belt pants will make me stifle a giggle as I'm reminded of his usual out fit of golf shirt and those pants. He always had a smile for everyone. It's too bad he's gone now.

Brain Pain

Uggh... This evening my sinus' are killing me. I fear that this blasted SARS(cold) is setting up a nasty infection in my sinus. Damn! I dread this so very much. I've been nearly religious with taking the prescription strength decongestant in a vain attempt to avoid a sinus infection. Uggh...

ON top of all that, I had to go to a freaking work meeting tonight. Work meeting = waste of time. I always car-pool with another photographer and we bitch about the meeting all the way there and back. This time we had our cheery little Christmas Party. Bah! I hate these things. We were asked to bring a wrapped $10 gift to exchange. I despise that. I don't purchase holiday gifts for most of my family so I resent purchasing a gift for a complete stranger. I got lucky this time. I found a Mikasa candy dish still in it's box that someone had gifted me several years ago - I remembered this just 15 minutes before I was to leave for afore mentioned meeting. The meeting was a complete waste of time, I think it was just a way for the director to let everyone know she was back from sick leave... I guess that's a good thing, I was betting she was dewing. The actual exchange was not to bad, I got a set of picture frames that got taken from me, then a very nice quad-picture frame that got taken from me, and finally a very nice set of wine glasses with beads around the stems. This lovely gift I will be re-gifting tomorrow when I have lunch with a dear friend. He will love them, he's not married and he has lovely ecletic decor in his home, whereas I have two energetic children and worn out-tore-up-used-up family decor. They just don't match anything I have! That and they are just two more things that I don't have a secure place for (secure as in kids can not reach). These glasses are very very nice, one of the other photographers makes them - I certainly think they were a bit above the $10 gift limit that was set, but hey, I'm not complaining. Now I don't have to show up empty-handed to see my friend. Anyway - the meeting sucked. I didn't learn anything new (which is what these meetings are SUPPOSED to be about) and my boss is still a moronic bitch - apparently that's not what was making her sick.

Off to bed now... I think my medication is kicking in now.

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

Recently my grandmother gave me a lovely gift. She gave me 15 pairs of shoes she no longer wanted. Obviously she and I wear the same size shoe and we share the same taste in many of the shoes. Lucky for me she has a better shoe buying budget than I do, so I now have some fabulous shoes! And best of all - there were 5 pairs of red shoes (my favorite!). Yes I am a shoe hoarder! It's a genetic condition.

Fork It!


I've discovered something that does not go in a washing machine. A fork. One should never throw a fork into the washing machine either with clothing or without. I know, I know, you are probably thinking that this information would be OBVIOUS and I tend to agree, but I did find a FORK in my washer. In the just washed clothing. Apparently this is something I need to explain to The Little People - Forks go in the dish washer, clothes go in the washing machine. Luckily my washer didn't seem to notice the fork thanks to the clothing - but some of the clothes did not fair so well with their fork companion. Ah well, at least it was not anything important.

Flight Of Fancy

Ignore the previous post. This weekend was so incredibly busy! Antonio surprised me Friday night with a spur of the moment trip to Antigua! He wanted to celebrate his newest investment in horses paying off big! Off to Antonio's private jet we went. He's such a romantic, he had roses just everywhere inside the plane. We shared a bottle of wine and snuggled while watching Meet The Parents as we flew. I was a bit tipsy by the time we landed in Antigua. His limo met us at the airport and whisked us away to a little cabin on the beach. We had more to drink in the limo so I was more on the drunk side than tipsy by the time we got to the cabin. The cabin was beautiful! I'll stop writing about Friday evening right here ;o).

Saturday morning I woke to the most beautiful sunrise! Absolutely breath taking! We shared a lovely breakfast on the front porch of the cabin. After a shower we went exploring the area and took some pictures. I'll post them soon! Need to go for now, it's nap time here - more later on the amazing trip to Antigua.

Better Living Through Chemistry

My SARS(cold) is hanging on - I know, I know, you are tired of hearing my whining about this fucking SARS, and believe me I'm tired of it also, if there was anything more interesting to write about in my life currently I wouldn't be whining about this fucking SARS.

I thought I was nearing the end of my bout with SARS but it took a nasty turn on Friday night and got worse. I woke Saturday morning feeling awful. I dosed myself up with prescription strength decongestion and a dose of robotussin. The effect was something akin to washing down crack cookies with a double-shot of esspresso - at least that's what I imagine since I don't do either of those - which was not entirely unwelcome on a busy day. I got through all my appointments fairly quickly and headed home to get some lunch and take a nap. I called a friend before nap and he gave me such crap about taking a nap late in the day I ended up not able to sleep (either that or the linger crack cookie/espresso effect hanging on), I then got the kids ready to head over to my Aunts house to see my other Aunt for a little get together. I would have actually been dreading it had I not been dealing with a headache. The family thing went well, the one family member who can't stand me and refuses to speak to me since my car got hit (after all it WAS just something I did to piss him off ya know) kept his distance and that helped to make the evening go well. My decongestant had worn off shortly after I arrived at my Aunts house and I was miserable. Luckily she had some Sudafed that helped for the duration of the visit. ...

Shit... I was just reading over all this crap I've just written and realized no one wants to read about this horribly boring shit... OK, something much more entertaining to come. It's been a while since I've written about Antonio my hot, super sexy (imaginary) boyfriend.

Early Risers

Well I was going to post yesterday about how I was getting over my SARS(cold) quickly and feeling much better, but that would have been a premature and erroneous post as I woke this morning feeling as though I had been stepped on my an elephant in my sleeping hours. I neglected to take the prescription strength decongestant yesterday as I mistakenly thought I was improving, also I had difficulty sleeping Wednesday night and I chalked that up to the decongestant. I should have suffered the ill sleep and taken the medication. My throat feels as though I've gargled with sand and Listerine. My sinus have that all to wet feeling of being in between being totally stuffed up and having a constantly running nose. And of course the little people got up far to early this morning. *sigh* OK, enough whining - I'll survive.

yesterday was a busy day and the little people were in rare form. The tsunami of toys I had been working so hard to keep from over taking my living room finally descended with a crash. It took less than 10 minutes - just long enough for me to gather the laundry from upstairs. The little people had broken into my bedroom closet like a couple of expert burglars. They found a forgotten box of party things from Super Girl's first birthday. Between spreading forgotten party items around the room and torturing my cat, they had a full day. I'm ready for a day off...

Take the What High School
Stereotype Are You? quiz.


Is ANYONE surprised? Anyone? Anyone?.... And yeah this is quite accurate about my high school days.

Time Travel

The other night I was having a discussion with hubby... Let me rephrase it, I was TRYING to have a discussion with hubby, and I asked him this question "If you could go back in time for one day, go to any time and talk to someone - and only that one person, no one else could see you or hear you, who would that be?" His answer was Jesus. No discussion. Grr... Men. He was desperately trying to NOT have a discussion with me - which is odd because we usually have the best discussions about the oddest things (we read comic books and watch sci-fi, what do you expect) - once we had a very animated, indepth discussion of what animals we would be if we were to devolve (this came about from a Star Trek episode) - we even discussed what animals our friends would also become, and... Well never mind about that... But the discussion came in handy at a couples wedding shower when there was a question on one of the games about what animal your spouse would be - we were the ONLY ones to nail that one (the host of the party was very impressed by this, especially since our answers were quite specific - three toed tree sloth (him) and pack rat (me), which only made us giggle) We know so damn much about each other it's frightening (I know, I know, your thinking "if you freaking knew so much about this man, how come you DIDN'T know he was GAY when you married him?" Yeah, yeah, well fuck you, he didn't know either)... But I digress... As his answer wasn't all that interesting or original (mine was!). I continued (in vain) to engage him in thoughtful discussion by saying "Well... Don't you want to know my answer?" (In a rather irritated tone after he had turned back to the computer for a few minutes... )

My answer - myself. I would go back in time to my young High School aged self and tell myself that yes my family sucks but I'm a lot tougher than I think. I also tell myself that my suspicions that my family is almost completely full of assholes is completely true and to keep that in mind when any of them start spouting of ridiculous bullshit, also don't take them to seriously. I'd tell me that I'm a pretty amazing person and to stop discounting my talents and abilities, that the people who should be encouraging me never will but I need to believe in myself - don't quit college and follow my dreams - my real dreams of being an artist. I'd say that many people will be critical but often their criticism is based on their own unrealized hopes and dreams and is their way of dragging people down to make themselves feel better. Also stop being so hard on myself - I need to tell myself how great I really am, there are plenty of people in this world who are more than willing to point out my flaws, but not too many who will give a sincere compliment - and when they do, don't discount it just accept it gracefully. And I'd end by saying to myself that I'm a lot stronger than I think, there's a lot to come where this strength will carry me through, take time to appreciate my own talent and beauty, believe in myself and... Stop skipping school and do the work - Sheesh! You can do the damn work, just do it! You manage a 3.67 GPA in college while working full time, WTF is the problem in High School? You barely graduate! Get with the program! Then I'd give myself a big hug and leave.

Of course I didn't finish all that when I was talking to hubby - he was working very hard to not have a discussion that night and quite honestly I don't' think he was even listening to me anyway. *sheesh* men.

Update From The House Of Biohazards! (my house)
Thanks Jacob for that one!

I didn't manage to achieve any of my goals (all two of them!). I didn't get to do NOTHING or to sit and knit. My feeble attempt to play videos/DVD to lull my children into a zombie like calm state did not work. My cat is an idiot when she's in heat and didn't run to hide from the little people. They spent most of the day torturing the cat. They put her under a plastic storage box and beat on the box, they tied scarves around the middle of her like a skirt, they squished her with hugs, they shoved her in gym bags and back packs and zipped them up and they held her down and covered her with my hair conditioner. Never once did my cat meow to be let go, let out or have a small child stop squashing her. Never did she scratch either of the little people (though they both most certainly deserved it!) nor did she try to nip or bite either (again they did deserve that). The day was filled with giggles and squeals of the little people as they subjected my poor stupid cat to one test of endurance after another. And yet after all she was put through today, she shows her moronic devotion to those who victimized her all day - she is sleeping in their room snuggled up next to one of them.

As for me, I'm still coughing, have a slight fever and I managed to finish my knitting after the little people were herded off to bed. I'm off to bed now, early in hopes that a few extra hours of sleep will bring relief and healing.

It Just Keeps Getting Better and Better
My Day, That Is...

Super Girl has the runs now. Had an accident in her pants, no clean panties so laundry is in order. Uggh.

Cabbage Patch has had several pee-pee accidents in her pants - this whole trying to teach her to pull down her pants and go potty is not going so well.

The upside is that all this has at least distracted me from my SARS.

The Cat Is Out Of The Bag
Literally

This exchange just happened:
Me: Come on downstairs girls!
few minutes pass
Super Girl: (standing at bottom of stairs with gym bag on like a back pack) The cat disappeared.
Me: She's probably hiding...(*getting suspicious of back pack) Is the cat in there?
Super Girl: She won't meow.
Me: Get my cat out of there! (*removing back pack and unzipping to free aforementioned cat)
Super Girl: No! No! (*reaching for cat even though being restrained)
Me: Get in the time-out chair!
Super Girl: But she didn't meow!
Me: NOW!
....
Is it time for naps yet?

SARS Update

Well my objectives of doing NOTHING today are not being accomplished. I got a shower - with the kids. We are all clean and dressed. I've straightened the living room again. Not quite the Tsunami of toys, but it was puddling in here. Now the little people are busy torturing my cat under the plastic box. I'm torn as to whether I should interrupt this game as it is quite absorbing of them, but there is the question of the ethical treatment of my cat... eh, she's in heat right now and seems to be enjoying the extra attention... She'll run and hide under the recliner when she's had enough (at least that's the rational I'm sticking with for now).

Looks like SOUP is still on the menu for dinner being that my teeth are still tender AND I'm not in full blown SARS (cold).

Insanity Reigns

Well I guess I've already lost the fight to keep things calm and normal. Cabbage Patch is currently wearing a pair of striped capri pants on her head chasing the cat so she can put the cat under a large plastic box for safe keeping. Hmmm... Is it wrong to give them Benedryl and put them down for naps now?

Naughty Or Nice?


(blatantly stolen off Sasoozie's page)
Well Santa has proclaimed that I am: Nicer than nice. A real champ! I was really proud of all the hard work that went towards changing those "naughty" habits of last year. Treated friends nicely and was exceptionally honest (which happens to be one of my favorite traits!) It's amazing what a good old fashioned "I'm sorry!" can do for a rating. Keep up the good work! (I checked with Santahere)

heh... Me nice... Go figure. I guess I get the nice list because I'm a Jew! HAHAHAHAHA! Santa's putting anyone he doesn't have to bring pressies to on the NICE list. :o)

In other areas... My SARS (Cold) has moved to my chest quickly - this sucks as the only thing I like to move quickly to my chest is a date. No dates for me though, not with this nasty cough. I have a bit of nasal drainage but I've been taking the last of hubby's prescription strength decongestant so that I won't be blowing my nose all freaking day. I'm hoping this all blows over pretty quick as hubby's did. Unlike him, I don't have a fever. And also unlike him I can't take a day off to sleep on the couch oblivious to the little people as my doting spouse makes sure I don't develop a searing brain cooking fever. Instead I've been taking industrial doses of vitamin C washed down with oj (yuck) and filtching his prescription decongestant and trying to placate the little people with holiday programming on Nick and children's videos. Yes I know, that's going to throw my "Mother Of The Year" nomination in question (Damn that Kathy Lee, she'll get it again this year!), but I'm really just thinking selfishly as I really don't want the usual tsunami of toys covering my living room today. I really don't feel like picking up toys and vacuuming - I did that yesterday - that and since I'm drinking oj and I don't have any more anti-reflux pills and crunching TUMS is out of the question due to my tender teeth, I really don't want to have to bend over all that much and cause the caustic stomach acids to start their process of eating away at my esophagus. My plans today are as followed: Sit on couch and knit occasionally getting up to get more oj or pudding... No wait.. I'm out of pudding!!!! D! Emergency Pudding Run! Bring Pudding and donuts (well I do have to feed the little people ya know)! Let little people watch as many videos/DVD's as they want (as I can possibly get them to sit and watch) so as to not have to lock them in dog kennels to keep my house clean and give me some rest - just kidding on the kennel thing (hubby won't let me get the big ones that they could fit in - bastard). That's my plan, hope I get all my objectives accomplished.

Oh one last thing. The little people can be so sweet some times (especially while sleeping). This morning I got out of bed croaking. I sat on the couch and Super Girl went to the fridge and got a pudding for me - she came in and handed it to me with her special spoon saying "Here you go sweetie, I even got you my green yellow spoon." Ahhh... Melted my heart.

Still In Pain

Well the pain has increased - as it should I suppose. I'm down to eating nothing hard like - chips or nuts or pizza or bread - hell water is almost to hard right now! Tylenol helps as does eating pudding. My sister brought me some, and she brought donuts for my kids. I'm also coming down with SARS (a cold) so I'm not feeling very good. I'm not going to do much here today (although I've already cleaned the livingroom and vacuumed)... and I'm certainly not cooking today (why cook when I can't eat it!)

But aside from that things in a certain area of my life are looking up. I'm not going to go into detail because I don't want to jinx it! (I know that just sounds stupid)

Well I'm off to go wallow in my own misery (and contemplate the good things happening).

Increasing Tension

Yikes, I just got back from my orthodontist appointment... Well about an hour ago. I'm already starting to get sore - all the way up through my sinus! I got everything all tightened up and got some rubberbands to wear now! Whoo-hoo!

The dental assistant who did my wires this time took forever and was stretching the hell out of my lips - ouch. While I was there one of the nose grip pads came off my glasses. Fuck. I can still wear them until I get that fixed. Still, it's a pain in the ass.

eh... I hurt.

Dancing Queen

I went into work early Saturday so that I could finish early for Super Girl's holiday dance recital. I got home by 2:30 pm to get her dressed and her hair fixed. I knew my grandmother and aunt would be showing up and right before we left my sister called and said she was almost at the center. I knew Super Girl would be delighted to see all of them.

The whole recital was about an hour, each class had two performances. Super Girl looked adorable in her pink dance outfit and matching pink bow in her hair. Her class did the last performance (I'm not counting the Jr. Dance teacher's tap routine at the end as part of the performances). They sang Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby. Super Girl was so Loud you could hear her over the rest of the kids and to my delight and surprise she actually did most of the dance moves. On her way out she slipped and fell right on her butt - that's my kid for you. My grandmother had brought a red rose for Super Girl since this was her first recital - that thrilled her so very much. My little Super Girl is a natural performer, she really loves being the center of attention.

Mommy Time

This is going to be a sappy post about mom stuff - skip it if you don't want to hear about it.

Early in the morning on Saturday - nearly 4 AM, my oldest came into my bedroom and informed me she wanted to sleep with me. Being that I work on Saturdays and have to be up at 6:30 AM I asked her to go back upstairs and get in bed with her daddy. Her answer "No, I want you." I tried one more time to convince her to go to her father, she said "But I want you mamma." How could I argue with that? I pulled the covers back and let her crawl in.

I didn't get much sleep. Having a 4 year old in one's bed is not the way to get a restful sleep. There is always a elbow poking or a knee bumping, little cold feet wiggling or a little cover hog cocooning in the blanket (I blame her father for passing this gene to her). 6:30 AM came much to quickly for me... Or maybe not.. It wasn't as if I was sleeping much. I got out of bed right when my alarm went off (which I normally don't) so as to not wake my baby. I looked back at her when I turned on the bathroom light and looked at her all snuggled down between the pillows with the blanket pulled up over her head. I couldn't see her at all, but I knew that lump was my girl. I took my shower thinking how I didn't really mind her interrupting my sleep. When she said "But I want you mamma." all irritation from being woken at the bleak hour of 4 am evaporated, I know that I only have a short number of years where she will want me to snuggle her to sleep when she can't sleep. Just a short time until she'll be utterly embarrassed by me, not long until she'll be way too cool to get a hug or kiss from mommy in public. My days of making everything 'all better' with a kiss are numbered. I know all this and guard these things jealously. The sands of time stop for no one... Not even a mom.

She woke when I started drying my hair. She sleepily crawled out of bed and headed upstairs to wake her daddy. Ahhh how soon I'm replaced.

Pumpkin Notes

L, you most certainly can use canned pumpkin. I know getting a fresh pumpkin this time of year won't be easy, and to be honest getting the pumpkin cut up and boiled can be a bit labor intensive. (You have to clean out said pumpkin, but into pieces, put in pot with a bit of salt and water and simmer until tender, then let cool and slice the outer rind off - which is easy because the pumpkin is soft - then you can either mash the pumpkin pieces or puree them. And to get the pumpkin to the canned hard-pack consistency you must put your pumpkin puree in a paper towel lined strainer over a bowl in the fridge for a day or two. See... Not hard, just a bit labor intensive). I've made pumpkin soup with canned pumpkin and it was very good.