Remember Me?

HOW could I have forgotten this???????

My niece, Kara, and Michelle Two, my nephew's girlfriend, and I went to the theater on March 12 to celebrate the opening of Remember Me. Basically, we went because Robward is in it; we knew nothing about the story. I'm so glad we didn't.

I won't spoil the ending. Up to that point, it was a good chick flick. Rob is incredibly cute in it, and he can actually act. Edward is rigid and contained; Tyler is emotional, impulsive, passionate.

But that ending. My God. It's like suddenly and unexpectedly being pounded in the chest by a 2x4. Totally stunning. Out of nowhere. There are some extremely subtle clues along the way, but since I don't notice anything subtle, I didn't see it coming.

Kara, Michelle, and I just sat there, stunned. Tears ran down our faces. As we left the theater, we were sobbing as we gasped "Oh my God I cannot believe that happened!"

Kara and I texted each other throughout the evening. We were feeling intensely sad. I cried off and on all night. I sobbed trying to tell Mom about it the next morning.

It's that good.

How the media didn't blab that ending all over the place is a total mystery to me. If I'd known how it ended I wouldn't have felt the power of it.

I want to see it again. Only partly because Rob is pretty.






Message to Rob: Do you have to smoke? Really?

STFU, spammers.

(thanks to southerngirl for the acronym)

Take heed, spammers. Your nasty little comments are not appreciated. I do not click on any nasty little links that you leave. How can I tell that you're spammers? You're "anonymous" and don't leave a name in the comment.

So just STFU and leave me alone.

hello from the warm, sunny Keys!

Hello from the sunny, warm Keys! I'm shopping for internet access, but it's expensive down here. DSL isn't available, which leaves cable, satellite, or dialup. We shall see.

I've been doing some cleanup yard work; the property looks a little less abandoned now. I can't send photos to my blog with this thing, so you'll have to take my word for it.

We're heading out to a steak dinner at the Moose in a little while. It's an interesting place. I wonder if they have internet access there? They're close to the library....

Next Wed. I fly to Orlando to spend a few days with the kids. A had her third Suppralin implant on Monday and is doing well. She's growing at a normal rate now.

Did I mention that it's sunny and warm here? *ducks and covers*

Jet set

That's me. I'm part of the jet set. Is that phrase even used anymore?

Saturday was.....interesting. It had occurred to me that maybe I shouldn't travel on the 13th, but since it wasn't Friday, I ignored the thought. I shouldn't have. Or maybe I just should have been a little more observant.

I needed a Pepsi or iced tea, so on my way out of town I swung past McDonalds, but there was a long line of cars in the takeout lane, so I went on to Kentucky Fried Chicken. I didn't want to get out of the car. That came back to haunt me (and taunt me) a few minutes later when I discovered that KFC didn't open for another 15 minutes and turned right into the parking lot of the business next door, because driving all the way through the drive-through lane and making an immediate right turn was too much trouble. So I turned. I discovered, to my horror, that there was no opening in the curb to allow me to turn, so one front wheel went over the curb and the car got hung up.

It wouldn't budge.

No one would answer my frantic knocks at KFC, so I walked--in the rain--over to the convenience store I had attempted to drive to. No men there, only two short women. I think that one of them could have single-handedly picked up the car and moved it back a few feet, but she declined. I walked--in the rain--forgetting to buy my Pepsi while I was in the store--to KFC and banged on the window, catching the manager's attention. Two women there. Betty called a tow truck, which arrived really quickly, and within a few minutes I was on my way to the bank. I hadn't planned a bank stop, but I couldn't find my AAA card and the woman on the phone couldn't find our file online because, of course, our membership is in the WestByGodVirginia division and she couldn't access that. I guess the internet doesn't cross state lines or something.

The kind tow-truck man wouldn't take a check, and I only had $20 in cash, so he followed me to the stupid convenience store to the ATM, where I once again forgot to buy a bottle of Pepsi. I forgot to ask him for a receipt. When I called Tom, he sweetly reminded me that our car insurance has tow insurance. Whoops.

So, anyway, I wrote a check from Tom's account to cover what I'd taken out of mine, dropped it at the bank, then stopped at Taco Bell for my damn Pepsi.

I got to Mom and Dad's house in plenty of time for them to get me to the airport. My suitcase was so heavy that I decided, at the last minute, to check it at the gate so I wouldn't have to injure myself trying to get it in the overhead bin. Had to change planes in Atlanta, which airport I hate with a passion, but got there in time to go to the bathroom and board the plane.

The plane got to FLL and we had to wait an hour before the baggage came off the plane. I kept waiting because mine didn't appear. Of course not. A very nice lady from AirTran, Jean, spent an hour with me trying first to find the bag then trying to figure out where it went. She was so sweet that I didn't get all bent out of shape about the fact that the clothes I would wear to the interview were in that damned bag.

We went on home, which isn't as fun a drive as it is in the daytime. At night, without the scenery, it's just a long-ass drive.

At midnight, Jean called to tell me that my bag had come in and she would send it to me right away. At 7:30 the phone rang again and my bag was on our front porch.

All's well that ends well.

We went to the Marathon Seafood Festival on Sunday afternoon. Beautiful day, 73 degrees, light breeze. Sunny. That night we went out to eat with Donna and James and spent the night at the condo. Which, I might add, has a wonderful high-end mattress in the master suite.

Monday morning we went back home and spent some time in the yard. Later I took a shower and we headed back to Marathon for my interview. Which I totally blew.

How many times have I worked with kids on those stupid interview questions? You know, the standard "what is your best quality" kind. I'd even come up with answers for them. I should have written them on my arm. I could not remember one thing and wasn't even able to come up with something that sounded semi-intelligent.

I suspect that I won't get that job.

But no big deal. It was experience, I'll know better next time, and I had three lovely days in the Keys.

PocketEdward™ had some adventures around the yard. Tom wasn't thrilled to see him. I just don't understand why not.

First he checked out the demolition Tom's done in the kitchen. The subfloor is in terrible shape.

He looked at the pool and wished he could swim well enough to catch the frog living in there.




He turned up his nose at some of our leftovers.




He enjoyed some sparkle time




And explored the jungle.

Okay, he can't explore the damn jungle. I can't get that damn photo to upload.

He snacked on a black panther in the jungle.




He didn't have good luck with the tiger, though.



Ahhhhh.

Here he runs through the jungle.

He took time to smell the bouganville. Evidentally thorns don't bother vampires.




He indulged in a quick snack, then



PocketEdward™ finally found his nuts.





With that, I leave you for now. 'Cause I'm heading back to Richmond tonight so I can catch my nonstop flight to FLL tomorrow morning. Back home to the Keys. For 16 days.

Life is good.

Guess who's going to Florida twice in one week?

That's right. I am.

Friday afternoon I found a voice message (gee, was that hard to do?) from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. I'd applied for an administrative assistant job there at the end of January. I called and was asked to come to an interview on Monday, March 15. Shoot, I'm going to be there March 19-April 4. We talked for 10 or 15 minutes, laughing; I really enjoyed myself. They'd chosen 7 applicants to interview, and all have to be interviewed by the same people (who are from offices elsewhere in the state).

I called Tom and explored the possibility for flying down for a few days so I could go to the interview. We decided that I'd check into airfare. I found some that wasn't as horrible as others, so I called the office and left a message that I will be there for the interview. I'll fly down Saturday evening and back home Tuesday night. Then, and this is the fun part, I'll work for two days and fly back to Florida on Friday the 19th. For two weeks.

I've been trying to find out more about the Florida F&WCC but haven't succeeded. I mean, I know that they deal with endangered animals, fishing and hunting licenses, etc., but this is a research facility. I should try to know a little more before I actually interview there.

Wish me luck!

Let's ALL sign up!

Aunt Becky needs our help.

She's the driving force behind Mommy Wants Vodka, one of my favorite blogs. This woman can write. She makes me laugh and cry and snork Pepsi through my nose, all at the same time. And she has written some stuff that she really wants to get published, but she needs all of us to help her.

Click on the title and check out her website. She explains what's going on and what she wants us to do. I've already emailed her potential publisher/agent/whoever the hell it is twice, with real email addresses. I think I'll go back and add a few made-up ones, just to help her get her numbers up higher.

If you leave a real email address, she'll send you a copy of one chapter. Free.

I'd say it's worth it!

sNOOOOOOOOw!!!!!!

It's snowing. Again. I hope that this is the very last time that I see snow falling.

Floridays

I've done it. I've decided to retire and move to Florida. Sooner, rather than later.

End of the school year in June.

I could stay here for another 3 years to get full retirement. I could also be laid off since Virginia's budget is in such horrendous shape and cuts are coming in the next couple of months. It's not going to get any better for at least two years. No step or cost of living increases were given to us this year, and we sure won't get them for the next two years, at least.

I think it's time to cut and run.

I'll still have to work. My retirement check is much less than half of what I make now (which isn't all THAT much to start with). I'll lose about $230 a month by leaving three years early, but some of that may be made up by an early retirement option with a lump-sum payment in June, if it's passed. Funny, I decided last week that I need to get to Florida with Tom, and today it was announced, just after I'd emailed the HR guy about retiring, that they were considering an early retirement incentive.

Sort of seems meant to be.

Sisters' Weekend

I don't want Pocket Edward to see the blasphemous things written about him on FaceBook.

Socks that I've knit for Joan, me, and Betty.

So this is what we get when we finally buy a brand new car

(Click on title)

Even with all the snow we've had, I haven't noticed any problems with the anti-lock break system. Especially since this is where it's been most of the last three weeks:

Has all of Toyota's negative publicity caused me to shun them? No. Dad bought his first new Toyota in 1971 and put well over 200,000 miles on it then sold it for almost what he paid for it. I've had Toyotas since 1988 and wouldn't think of buying anything else. They've all been good cars that went for 225,000 miles or more with little major work. I fully expect this Prius to do as well.

But don't say that out loud. Every time I say something good about my car, something goes wrong, so I'm not going to risk it!

I'll be mourning Zippy for a long time. He was the perfect little companion.

This is the last photo I took of him, Saturday, February 6. I went outside to take photos of the snow, and he perked up when he saw me go to the door with my coat on. He was a terribly sick little boy, but he was still interested in going outside. Late that night, when we took him to the emergency vet, he could barely stand up, but when we said "go bye-bye in the car?" he did one last, slow zip (he'd prance in circles when he was excited) and trotted out the door and around the car, all by himself. Zippy The Wonder Dog.

I haven't mentioned knitting in a long time. I did very little after the middle of December; I drove to Florida by myself (with Zip in the passenger seat) so I didn't have that time to knit. I've been pretty scattered; I keep starting projects, getting bored, and going on to something else. I've gotten about half of Upstairs Shawl (ravelry link) done, but not in a lace yarn. I found some cool cotton/synthetic yarn, worsted weight, on sale at the fabric shop in town; had been about $7 a ball, reduced to $1 each. It called to me. I don't know it I'll keep it for myself or give it away. I just needed to knit it. The lady who owns the Key West knit shop, Knit Wits of Key West, was wearing it the day I went in before Christmas to buy a last-minute hank of yarn, and I was smitten. Some day I might photograph it.

Then I had to start a pair of socks for Betty. We're kinda particular about our socks. For years Betty gave each of us several pairs of Birkenstock socks for Christmas; they wear forever. They're making fewer these days. Betty couldn't find any that she liked, and it was COLD, so I cast on a pair for her. The yarn is superwash wool that I bought at the local yarn sh0p, from a local dyer, Dyepot. The colors didn't photograph true to the yarn, but you can get an idea. The yarn is almost luminous, a deeper red than what shows in the photo.



I also knit a beautiful skinny scarf from Tilli Thomas' Rock Star American Beauty. This yarn is incredible; it's pure silk with a thread of tiny beads added. One hank is $40; Joan gave it to me for my birthday. Bought in Key West, too, which makes it even better. I used the kpixie Valentine Sequin Scarf pattern and love it. It's a nice long skinny scarf, and the yarn is just so luscious.

I might add more later; right now, homemade soup is calling my name.

Sparkly

With a little (okay, a lot of) help from bare minerals makeup, Pocket Edward™ now sparkles in the sun. Isn't he impressive?

Snow, rinse, repeat

*sigh*

I should have known that, by planning to move to the Keys for good this summer (if all works out), I'd be dooming this area to The Winter from Hell.

The last few winters have had really cold spells but very little snow. Tom and I have been married for over four years; not once during that time have I not been able to get in and out of the driveway at the old homestead. It helped that Tom's truck is four-wheel drive. But now the truck is with Tom at our place in the Keys and it seems that a Prius (whose brakes seem to be working very well, thank you, although I've driven it very little this year) just isn't up to the task of plowing through more than an inch or two of snow.

In 1995-96 we had a blizzard that closed city schools for over a week and county schools for two weeks. That's when I made the transition from the county school system to the city's; I gave my two-weeks' notice and didn't work again until the city schools opened more than two weeks later.

I think that we had something like 53" of snow that winter. We've already passed that and it's only Feb. 10. I last worked on the 4th, and school has been closed since then. It's still up in the air if we'll go tomorrow. Watch out, Spring Break, we may lose you.

So, yeah. The Winter from Hell. Weeks of single-digit temperatures. Snow after snow after snow. Today we have a high-wind advisory. Does it get any better than this.



ETA: No school tomorrow. Five days in a row, seven since the end of January. *sigh*

Pocket Edward is on the job

Pocket Edward™ debates using the doggy door to scope out the back yard.



He tries to scale the Matterhorn.



Icicles! The perfect weapon.



Must. Reach. Bella.




Baby the Quaker Parrot says, "Vegetarian vampire my ass."

R.I.P., Zip

Poor little Zippy. Thursday morning he was lethargic and vomiting, so I took him to our vet. Bob gave him subcutaneous fluids, shots for nausea and an anti-inflammatory, and liquid amoxicillin. Zip had a moderately high fever.

Thursday evening, Zip was almost himself, begging for food, perky, happy. He ate a little chicken and rice. Friday he was lethargic again, just drinking water. Of course, it had snowed all day and no local vets were open, much less Bob, whose office is 40 miles away over a mountain. The emergency vet's office didn't open till 6 p.m., and the snow was too bad to attempt the drive (20 miles away).

It snowed all day Saturday. Zip vomited in the afternoon, bringing up food that he'd eaten on Wednesday. Totally undigested. We started giving him a few tablespoons of water every half hour; he kept it down for a couple of hours, but started vomiting again.

We decided he needed to see the vet that night, so after digging Betty's car out of the driveway we took Zippy outside. He was so happy; he even performed one last zip on the way out. He loved to ride in the car.

We managed to get out of the driveway but got stuck in the road right in front of the house. Greg dug us out, and after a little pushing, we were on our way.

It was such a surreal trip. We stayed off the interstate; there have been some nasty accidents on there during snow. The main road was covered with snow, but it had been plowed and we were able to drive along at 30 mph. Fortunately there was very little other traffic; we drove down the center of the four-lane road without any trouble.

We got to the vet's office after 11 p.m. We were taken into the examining room right away and Zippy was examined. His temperature was normal but he was still vomiting.

After blood work, the verdict was in; Zippy was a seriously sick little boy. He was severely diabetic; the highest the machine would register was >700, and that's where his blood sugar was. He also had kidney disease and pancreatitis. He would have never been able to have any table food or treats ever again. Zippy loved his treats. The very last thing that he ate and kept down was two tiny bites of a muffin.

After debating the options, and a lot of crying, I decided it was better to let Zippy go peacefully rather than hospitalize him for up to a week to stabilize his diabetes and treat the pancreatitis. He would have had to have shots twice daily.

He died very quickly and peacefully after Betty and I took turns holding him and telling him how much we love him.

We miss him terribly.

Now what?

I've almost finished reading Eclipse for the third time. I won't go home again till Tom comes up in about 10 days, and Breaking Dawn is at home. I may have to go to the library.

.

.

.

.

Pocket Edward ™ ETA: Wednesday.

And I cancelled the New Moon movie order with Amazon because I found out that, for only $5 more, one can buy it from Target with a 3rd disk of special features and a cell from the movie.

I've never watched the 3rd disk of Twilight, but if one is available, then one must have it.

Shut up. I'm not as bad off as the people who buy one, then see it offered with a little something more at another site, and buy that one, then the next time they see something different, get that too.

Welcome to the Dark Side, Granddaughter

Last night, during a marathon call, my oldest granddaughter brought up Twilight. (She knows me so well.) She's never exhibited any curiosity about the book or movie; on the contrary, she couldn't be less interested. Last year she was irritated because her teacher was in love with the series and talked about it a lot in class. This time, though, she had some questions.

"Lots" of girls in her class are reading the series. She could even name three of the four books. She doesn't have a clue what Twilight Girl's name actually is, but she wanted to know if TG ever gets bit and turned into a vampire. I said, "Do you really want to know?" "Yes!" "But if you ever decide to read the books, it's spoiled for you." "I'm not going to read them. Does she turn into a vampire?" So I told her yes, she does.

"Which book?" "Breaking Dawn, the fourth and last book." "So why are all these books named night names? What do they have to do with anything?" I told her that I'd read about them but didn't remember what I'd read (note to self: research this), but I thought that they all have to do with the fact that, in other vampire stories, vampires couldn't go outside during the day because they'd burn to ashes if the sun touched them. In the Twilight series, that's not the case, because they can go outside any time they want to, but their skin sparkles in the sun, so people would know something weird was going on. And no one could know that there are real vampires.

Also, I told her, the names of the books seem to represent the story's progression, with Twilight being the one where Bella (or Twilight Girl) meets Twilight Boy and they fall in love. In New Moon, they're separated by Edward's misguided but heartfelt belief that Bella is better off, and safer, without him, and she goes into a deep depression, represented by the darkness of night during a new moon.

"What about Eclipse? Isn't that about the sun?" Well, it can be, but here it's the bright shining ring of moon around the dark shadow the sun throws onto it, representing the reunion of Bella and Edward and their happiness. And Breaking Dawn is the book that ends the story, with everything coming together and the dark of night giving way to the bright sunrise.

Damn. If I do say so myself, I'm impressed. I just pulled all of that out of my ass without any thought. It may be totally off-course, but it really does sound good.

I told A that I'll send her Twilight if she ever wants to read it; I have no problem with a 10-year-old reading the first three books in the series. (I told her she can't read Breaking Dawn until she's 16, which may have been the wrong thing to say.) She said she doesn't want to read it since I can tell her all about it.

But today I ordered Twilight from Amazon to be delivered to her house with the note: "A, you don't have to read this book now, or ever, if you don't want to. I've had so much fun talking to you about it that I want you to have a copy of one of my favorite books." Maybe eventually she'll read it, maybe not. It doesn't matter.





I may or may not have also ordered New Moon the Movie and a Pocket Edward™. We won't discuss that.

Burning a theme with ponzy-like structure

"Hi there!I would like to burn a theme at here. There is such a thing, called HYIP, or High Yield Investment Program. It reminds of ponzy-like structure, but in rare cases one may happen to meet a company that really pays up to 2% daily not on invested money, but from real profits.For quite a long time, I make money with the help of these programs. I'm with no money problems now, but there are heights that must be conquered . I get now up to 2G a day , and I started with funny 500 bucks. Right now, I'm very close at catching at last a guaranteed variant to make a sharp rise . Visit my blog to get additional info."

Just what I've always wanted to do!!! How did this person know?

P. S. I'll never understand "ponzy scheme". And I don't care to.

Spam

This is one of the more....creative spam comments that I've gotten:

"Good day, sun shines!There have were times of hardship when I didn't know about opportunities of getting high yields on investments. I was a dump and downright stupid person. I have never thought that there weren't any need in big starting capital.Now, I feel good, I begin to get real money. It gets down to select a correct partner who uses your money in a right way - that is incorporate it in real business, parts and divides the profit with me.You may ask, if there are such firms? I have to tell the truth, YES, there are. Please be informed of one of them:"

One would think that Rule No. 1 for Good Spamming would be using correct grammer and subject/verb agreement, at least.

Hello to Germany

*waves*

Hi, person from Germany who's googling Edward Cullen and ended up here!

Helloooooooo???

*tap tap tap*

Is anyone out there?

*shields eyes with hand*

I can see you, really, I can, but I can't hear you.

I know that someone(s) from Europe and the U.S. and the U.K. and Panama and even someone from Slovakia have googled "italy-shirtless-edward-new moon" and "robert-pattison-new-moon-shirtless" and "edward-cullen" and "vanity-fair-italy-edward-and-bella".

And I thought I had it bad.

Come on, please leave a comment if you land here from any search. Even though there are some google searches I'd rather not be associated with, I'd sure like to know who's out there.

*crickets chirping*

Thank God for Mike!

Mike, my son-in-law, is an electrician. He'd volunteered last summer to come to our place in the Keys and check out the electrical system at The Cat House once we bought it, which is very nice of him since we're not paying him anything to do it. He happened to score two days off this week after working 8 days straight, so yesterday Tom picked him up just south of Orlando and they headed back to the Keys. Mike has spent the entire day working on getting the electrical system hooked up correctly.

It's a good thing that the expert was there. Turns out that the (improperly installed) box (whatever that thingy with the breakers in it is called) has been sparking for some time and the whole house could have gone up in flames at just about any time. The box was in the old master closet which backed up to the laundry nook, and the dryer had been vented into the wall between the two. Thank God Tom had taken out that wall weeks ago and gotten years' worth of dryer lint ripped out, because it probably would have caught fire when the electricity was turned on.

Just another example of the quality work put into that house by its previous owners.

*snork*

So. If you like to laugh until you cry and make the very kind people you work with think that you just got bad news because you're quietly shaking and tears are running down your face and you have to blow your nose before you can say anything,



then you have to read this.

Do yourself a favor and wear Depends, okay?

It'stoodamncold

There you have it. One word. My reason for not doing a thing.

It'stoodamncold.

It was 8 degrees this morning. Eight. Eight. Unfrickingbelievable.

Yeah, yeah, I know that it was 31 in Miami this morning. It's been in the low 40s at night in the Keys. 31 is almost four times warmer than it is here, and 40 is five times.

I'm considering retiring and moving to the Keys without a job. It's five times warmer there at night. So we won't be able to pay the mortgage. The house in WV is locked in ice anyway. No one, including its owner, can get to it anyway.






I wish I could just leave. I won't because I'm too responsible to bail. But I'll think about it a whole lot.

Side note

This guy’s father, a Cuban fisherman, built The Cat House 30 years ago.

The Cat House

*note: I tried to download photos onto the computer at work, but because of my sore neck, I can't wiggle around on the floor trying to find the usb ports. Later.*

With the forecast for heavy snow on December 18, I was able to take the day off and leave for Florida that morning. I'd planned to drive to Mom and Dad's house that evening and leave the next morning, but fate dictated otherwise.

I stopped at Mom and Dad's, then started the first leg of the journey. It's a total of about 21 hours from their house to The Cat House, and the longest I've ever driven in one day (when I'm driving, not just riding) is 12 hours. That was 16 years ago. I just can't do that anymore.

I stopped in NC for some good ol's Smithfield Barbeque. While I was there it started snowing; it had been overcast all day. When I got back on the road (with Zippy finishing some of my hush puppies) I was out of the snow within 10 minutes and into rain. It rained the rest of the day, but it's better than ice any day.

After driving for 7 hours, I stopped for the night at a pet-friendly hotel about 40 miles north of Savannah. I took Zippy in with me to register, and since I hadn't tried to hide him, they didn't charge the $10 pet fee. The $70 bill included breakfast (Denny's Grand Slam), so it was a pretty good deal. Zip had slept the entire day in the car; at times I have to poke him to make sure he's still alive, he sleeps so soundly. By bedtime he was wound up tight, and he barked every time he heard a noise. Motels are noisy.

Next day, we drove to Orlando, a seven-hour drive. Spent that night and Sunday with Jennifer and the kids, then Monday left for the Keys, a seven-hour drive. Three days. If I could leave early in the morning, I could drive farther each day, but I get sleepy in the mornings. I'm okay in the afternoon and early night.

As we drove over the bridge that officially marked the start of the Keys, I kept telling Zippy (who just wanted to sleep) that we were coming home for the first time. We're Keys homeowners now. He wasn't impressed, but I was very excited.

Driving slowly through the Keys doesn't bother me. I like to take my time and drink in the views of the water and islands. I love to see mangroves growing at the side of the road. There are lots of birds to observe, although quickly. It's okay if I have to go slow.

It was dusk as we drove over the Seven Mile Bridge onto Bahia Honda (which has been rated the best beach in the country in the past) and dark as we reached Big Pine Key. Tom told me where to turn off Key Deer Boulevard to reach our little subdivision (read: fishing village), but I'd forgotten by the time I got there, and I ended up driving to the end of the island anyway. That was okay since I got to see several Key deer along the way. Finally, after backtracking, I reached our place in the Keys, the first time as a homeowner.

The amount of work that needs to be done on that place is overwhelming. Everything has to be updated. Whoever did the last (attempted but not finished) remodel did a piss-poor job, and it's possible that previous renos were just as poorly done. The plumbing has to be replaced. The a/c was done improperly, so all of the vents have to be pulled out and replaced, along with the a/c units themselves. That alone will cost about $9,000; to do it really well and have an energy-efficient system was $7,ooo-$10,000 more, and we just can't afford to do that and attempt to do anything else to the house now. The floors are sagging; the windows all need to be replaced (the current windows must have been the absolute cheapest ones available) and hurricane shutters added; much of the wiring has to be pulled out and replaced.

We decided to make three rooms liveable for now, the kitchen, one bedroom and one bathroom. Since we're totally remodeling the master bed/bath/closet, we're using one of the upstairs bedrooms for now; it's huge--12' wide by 20.5' long, the depth of the second story. That room could be used as an apartment; it's plenty big for a couple of beds and a sitting area. It's going to make a great guest room. Eventually. For now, it's our bedroom. My old queen-size bed and one end table are in there now, along with the cat tower.

The upstairs bathroom is usable. It has a harvest gold tub/shower and sink with a fairly new white toilet; all are in working order. That will be the last room to be remodeled. After massive cleaning, the kitchen can be used. We have an old stove and fridge that we took down, and we bought a microwave oven.

The entire house has popcorn ceilings. U G L Y. They catch every bit of dust, and, in the kitchen, grease. Grease and dust. Not a good combination. We don't want popcorn ceilings, so Tom scraped every bit off the kitchen ceiling. Ugh, more dust, but repeated mopping of the ceiling, walls, and floor will eventually get rid of that problem. Unfortunately, there are those stupid ceilings in every room, and the ones upstairs all have cathedral ceilings. Fun fun fun.

I really enjoyed doing some yard work. There are a lot of nuisance trees/plants in the yard, along with plants that I just don't like (pampas grass, anyone? It takes up so much space and provides a hiding place for any kind of nasty insect or reptile, so out it goes.), so much has to be done. Brazilian Pepper trees are considered nuisances; they take over wherever they take root, and they can grow 1' a week. They have clusters of beautiful tiny red berries, so I hate to see them go, but Monroe County has deemed them nuisances and to be eradicated. Since there are so many other things we want to grow, I can live with that.

We have a silver buttonwood hedge outside the two streetside fenced sides of the yard. They're terribly overgrown but will be beautiful when they're trimmed. Deer like to rest under the hedges and they provide privacy screening. There are many cabbage palms in the yard; most will be pruned so they don't take up so much space and some will be removed to make room for other palms. There are two coconut palms in the back yard, one large and bearing fruit, that'll need to be trimmed but not moved.

Three HUGE hibiscus are in front of the bedroom windows; they're almost to the second story, so they need to be drastically pruned. Bouganville covers the left front corner of the yard. Many more assorted palms in various sizes will have to be removed or moved.

The deck has been demolished, and Tom has torn out the walls and insulation in the master bath and closet. The fixtures have been removed. He discovered Dade Pine siding on the house; it's absolutely beautiful, washed a pale bluish-gray, but he says the upkeep is too great to consider removing the vinyl siding.

I'm worn out just thinking about it.

My neck is hurting, so I'm going to take a break. Whatever I've left out I'll try to catch up with later.

On the knitting front, I did very little, just some sock knitting to Ft. Lauderdale and back. I'm starting to feel the creative bug again, but who knows when it'll actually bite.

Quick update

Two weeks in Florida, lovely (if somewhat cooler than usual) weather, work around The Cat House, lots of FaceBook time on the Crack (and utter irritation for several days when the Crackberry network was down and no one had told me about it) (by no one I mean RIM, of course, the people who own the company), walks around our new neighborhood, observing the wildlife, playing with grandkids, floating in a warm pool on Christmas night, three days of driving seven hours a day each way (my butt cheek gets numb, okay?), living in our place in the Keys, having to leave and come home, then the little surprise of finding 6" of ice and snow on our driveway in WV, two weeks after it snowed and over a week since a minor ice storm, not being able to drive up the driveway, cracking the front bumper of our less than 2-months-old Prius, getting stuck and having to walk uphill to the house in the dark in the snow and ice and 10 degree temperature with 40 mph winds while wearing clogs because one doesn't need real shoes in Florida even in the winter with no depth perception in the dark and faulty balance on a smooth surface on a sunny day while trying to balance several large tote bags on my shoulders and falling down and losing a clog while screaming "WHY ME?" (or something like that only a lot more profane) at the cold stars as I sat on the ice without one shoe not being able to balance enough to stand up to look for the damn shoe and Zippy had run ahead up to the house and was patiently barking at the front door for someone to let him into the nice warm house while I was crying and snotting without any tissues halfway up the driveway thinking that I was going to die within sight of my own house and no one would ever find me and a bear might eat my barely-frozen carcass and it's all because I can't move to Florida until we sell our house in WV or I get a good-paying job in Florida which isn't likely this time of year (either one) then the next morning I called the guy with the tow truck who came after daylight to pull the car out of the ditch (where I almost took out the side of the new car by getting this---------->close to a huge bolt on a fence post) then dragged my crap back down to the car after deciding that I was not going back to that house until the spring thaw or June, whichever comes first then still being stuck in the damn driveway about 6' from the actual road and spending half an hour trying to get the car that six feet while getting this------->close to the For Sale sign in the ditch by the road until a nice man took pity on me and pulled me out of the driveway and I will not go back to WV until I'm sure that I can make it up that damned driveway and last night my shoulder muscle spasmed and Betty had to help me to bed because it was agonizing to move and it hurt so bad I didn't sleep well even after taking some percocet or something like that so today I went to the doctor who prescribed a muscle relaxant that shouldn't make me dopey but sort of has so I'm going to go to Betty's house and take another one and see if I can sleep.

*deep breath*

Zippy and I are living with Betty for a while.

Attention spammers:

Really, I'm not going to invest in your scams. Go away.

Please

If you pray, please send good thoughts to an old Dave Barry blog buddy of mine who is now also friends of my sisters. He just found out that he has prostate cancer and has to wait over a week for the appointment with his surgeon.

The Twilight saga revisited

Yes, I have a stack of books--good ones, from the blurbs on the covers, or the pictures on the cover, which is usually what attracts me to a book (yes, I'm shallow.)--on my bed to read. There are hundreds in the bookcases. So in the last couple of weeks, I've reread Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. And I liked them.

Are they fine literature? Depends on what you call literature. After rereading the series, I don't see the reasons that many detractors say that they're so poorly written. Evidentally there's something universally loved in them, by tweens and moms and grandmoms alike. The Washington Post article that I linked to a couple of weeks ago said it well. I'm paraphrasing here because I'm just too lazy to look back and click on the link, but the gist of the thing is that it takes us (women) (okay, some women) back to a time of first love, innocence, not to mention that teen angst, depression, insecurity, etc. But the books really are innocent; kisses, hugs, snuggling, and it very strongly encourages abstinence. (For a few minutes I couldn't think of that word; all I could come up with was incontinence. That comes much later than the series ever goes.) I don't think that sex is even mentioned, much less implied, until Breaking Dawn, which is the only book in the series I wouldn't want my granddaughter to read until she's, oh, 30, but the first three are innocent fun.

For some reason it surprised me to discover that Stephenie Meyer is Mormon. A Mormon mom writes a series of vampire/shapeshifter love stories? Tom is Mormon, so I mentioned it to him. He said, why wouldn't a Mormon write it? She's human, she has a degree in English, so why not? Anyway, I think that maybe that's where the insistence on abstinence comes from. I'm really happy to see that someone with so much influence in the lives of teenage girls (and old{er} women) doesn't have her characters falling into bed, or the backseat of Edward's Volvo (although really, that car is much too small; maybe Bella's old truck?) or anywhere until they're married. Edward was very definite on that subject, although I think that Bella would have been okay with it.

So. The point is, who cares if it's good literature? In my opinion, it's good if it's something that I enjoy, that I want to reread, that takes root in my brain and rots it entertains me for months on end. I'll read the entire series again. I've started reading Midnight Sun, which is available as only a PDF file which cannot be printed and I hate trying to read stuff on a computer screen but the story (Twilight from Edward's point of view) is so damn fascinating that I'll have to read it anyway.

Once again I cried at the end of Breaking Dawn. It ends so perfectly. I was so sure, the first time I read it, that

***SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT*** (even though there probably aren't too many people around who want to read the series and haven't) (if you are one, then stop now, because I'm going to talk about the ending of the saga)


Bella was going to die. I simply could not accept that, and I seriously considered putting the book down before the last battle. Fortunately someone (Urban Mom, thank you so much!) persuaded me to keep reading, and I love it.

So what will I read now? I don't know. Maybe I'll start over. The whole Twilight thing has taken root and I can't get rid of it. I don't want to. I like the innocence of the characters (right, vampires and werewolves innocent? In this series, yes.), the whole story. The fantasy. No, not the fantasy inspired by visions of naked teenage abs, although that one is all right, too. It's the whole fairy tale that ends like a Disney cartoon.

And I love it.

More attention than I need

I guess I've hit the big time. I'm now attracting spammers. So far it's not a royal pain, but if it continues, I'll have to go to word verification to prevent them.

I have to check to see just what it is that they're googling; I'm kind of afraid to see!

Today's weather

Here (lifted from NOAA's website):

Winter Storm WatchHazardous Weather Outlook

Today: Snow and sleet likely after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 39. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total daytime snow and sleet accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Tonight: Snow, freezing rain, and sleet before 11pm, then freezing rain between 11pm and 3am, then rain or freezing rain after 3am. Low around 31. South wind between 3 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New ice accumulation of 0.2 to 0.4 of an inch possible. New snow and sleet accumulation of around an inch possible.


Aaaaannnnndddd at our place in the Keys:

Today: Sunny, with a high near 80. East wind between 5 and 10 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. South wind around 10 mph. Wednesday: A slight chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a high near 83. South wind between 5 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 10%.Wednesday Night: A slight chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. South wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

So, where do you want to be?

Why I didn't go to see "New Moon" again today

Chester's opinion of the snow:





It's mine, too.

Cause and effect

A teacher gave me this:



because this is on my office bulletin board:

Comedy of errors

and this time it is not my fault.

Xerox is no longer my new BFF. When the new copier was installed two weeks ago I asked how long the toner and staples would last, as they didn't send any extras along. The tech assured me that staples would last for at least a month. After only 5 days of use, the staples ran out. Monday. I called for more. The rep asked what product number I needed. I looked online, saw there were several types of staples for this machine, and told him I had no idea because I'd never ordered any. He kindly chose one for me and sent a box of four cartridges, which arrived yesterday afternoon. He was WRONG. They don't fit this particular machine.

I called yesterday and talked to a very knowledgeable, helpful, funny rep, who just happened to be born in Virginia, too. We bonded. She said she'd send out several boxes of the correct staples and would overnight one box to arrive today. She was my new BFF.

Seems that Xerox is having a quality control problem with their warehouse employees. The box that arrived an hour ago was suspiciously light. That's because it contained a plastic waste toner container. Not staples. Two numbers were transposed somewhere between the order being placed (my BFF had the number right) and being sent.

I hate having to call people. I think I've mentioned before that I absolutely hate talking on the phone. I think I can trace it back to early in my first marriage when I was stupid and naive and believed everything that I was told and my then-husband thought it would be funny to play a prank. He gave me a phone number, said they'd requested that I call, but he didn't know who it was. It was the local mortuary. For some reason this embarrassed me so much that I became phone-phobic. I don't even like to answer it unless I know who's calling, and in West by God Virginia we don't have caller id. At least, we don't.

Anyway. Back to my current problem. I called Xerox again and used my I've-been-pushed-waaaay-beyond-my-limit voice. The rep to whom I talked couldn't help me because they had to send me a new order without charging me. Turns out "everyone" in that department is at a meeting.

My stomach hurts.

Oh, and the toner that I ordered when I first ordered the staples? Came yesterday. And the first one in the machine hasn't run out.

I want to go to sleep.

Update from the Keys

Weather: 79 degrees and raining.

Health: ill, possibly flu. Going back to the condo to sleep.



Last night my stomach hurt so much that I thought I'd die. I couldn't straighten up. When I didn't die after half an hour, I went to bed. I figured I'd die or sleep. I slept. Fine today.

Overall, I'd rather be in Marathon.

Weather report from South Florida

Tom called at 9 last night as he left Orlando and headed to Ft. Lauderdale. (Someday I'm going to google to see if there really is a fort there.) He sounded far too happy when he told me that it was in the 60s there. It was 30 here.

It's supposed to snow here tonight.

*sigh*

Lazy days

Nope, not just summer's lazy days. It's a way of life for me, unfortunately. I mean, not unfortunately for me, just for those who have to deal with me and my ways.

Tom's heading back to our place in the Keys early tomorrow morning, taking a load of stuff to Jennifer, then on to our place in the Keys to start demolition on the deck in preparation for the tenting next week (if still in place, the whole deck will have to be tented, too, and that just costs too much), moving the electrical box thingy, whatever it's called, so it's in the wash alcove in the kitchen instead of in the master closet. He's also taking more of our houseplants with him; they can't do much worse in the shade down there than they do inside during the winter up here. He's taking a generator, just in case. He'll have the electricity finally turned on after the box thingy is moved. The toilets have to have their seals or whatever replaced so they don't leak (not sure what's going on with that, since they weren't leaking when Tom was in there right after the auction).

Meanwhile, I'm up here in the cold, scraping ice off the windshield of the car, shivering as I drive to work. Okay. I don't scrape the windshield; I turn the defroster on and let it work its magic. I'm lazy.

Speaking of the Prius, I love it. It's got pep when it's needed, which isn't that often but it's nice to know the option is there. It's getting about 45 mpg and costs about $22 to fill it when it appears to be empty (still has about 3 gallons in there when it's crying wolf). I love the way it handles, it has a great stereo with 6 speakers, a cd changer, and (for now) XM radio. I know, I know. I hate Sirius since it took over XM, but it's fun to have anyway. So there. I said it.

Thanksgiving was a busy time with visiting family and family visiting and so on. My family got together at Betty's house and Tom's family got together at his sister-in-law's house 10 miles away, so we got to visit with both. Zippy was happy that his cousins Henley, Millie, and Benji came along to Betty's, and Deja and Snickers were at the Post's house. He was one tuckered out little boy, although not as worn out as he'd have been if his One True Love, his cousin Max, had visited.

My dog is gay, NTTAWWT*. Or maybe he and Max are just trying for dominance, which looks the same when it's two male dogs.

Tom's daughter and her boyfriend drove up from Ft. Lauderdale and stayed over the break. It was nice to have them here.

I've been knitting some Christmas presents (gee, aren't you happy you're related to me?) and working on a pair of black socks for me. I need black socks. I put clear silver-lined beads instead of working the hearts on one sock; unfortunately it looks better stitched than with beads, but what the heck.

I'm rereading Eclipse, for some reason. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I did the first time, probably because I can imagine the actors in the roles. As for New Moon the book, I think it's the hardest of the four to read since Bella is so catatonic through most of it. I like the movie more than the book, which is unusual for me. I may go see the movie again; Kara's been twice and will go if she's not worn out from grooming dogs 60 hours a week.

I'm looking forward to Christmas Break--oops, I mean Winter Break. I'm leaving for Florida after school on the 18th. I've only driven to Florida (Sanibel) once and figured that was enough and flew after that, but the Prius is so easy on gas that I'm going to try it again. I'll stop in Orlando on the way down and back, both to break the trip and to see the family. Maybe they'll go to our place in the Keys (read: if we can borrow the condo) for a few days, which would be nice. I think I'm going to go to the beach on Christmas Day. I've never had the opportunity to do that before. I don't think it gets much better than that!

On the work front, I have a brand-new Xerox 4595 to complicate make my job so much easier. It's twice as fast as the old ones, works a zillion times better, and jams only occasionally and it's really easy to fix them. I <3 it. It's so very fast that jobs are finished almost before I scan them and I'm having a hard time keeping them separate. But what a problem to have.

After 3, time to go home!



*not that there's anything wrong with that

New Moon on a big screen

Wow. It left me speechless.

Overall impression: I love this movie. Makeup is better (except Jasper's), special effects are dazzling (although that whole Edward glows thing still is cheesy; do they not get it?), KStew's acting is much-improved, Taycob's acting has grown along with his...his.....excuse me, where was I? Oh yeah. The kid can act, and act well. He actually had me feeling sorry for him when Bella turned away from him to run to Italy to save Edward, who was about to commit vampire suicide by dazzling a bunch of people, the very same Edward who'd broken her heart by telling her that she doesn't belong in his world and then walking off into the woods leaving her behind to wander hopelessly until she falls onto the mossy moldy-leaf floor of the forest and curls into the fetal position.

That Edward.

Kristen did a passably good job of portraying a totally dead-inside jilted teenage girl. Actually, photos from the movie show a truly empty, heartbroken Bella better, but she did well in the movie. I wasn't terribly impressed the first time around (Twilight the movie) although I didn't think she was as bad as most (women) (teens) thought; Bella isn't that deep a character. This time, she looks like she has a huge hole in her chest from Edward's leaving.

Somewhere (some magazine cover) I saw that Robward said something along the lines that, in these movies, his hair does 75% of the acting job. He's right. His hair is just scrumptious, although in this movie it's a little shorter and less tousled. It's still doing some great acting. I think that probably another 20% of the job is done by his square jaw and those thin, crooked-smile lips. Basically, all he has to do is stand in front of the camera, smile or scowl, and he's deserving of an Academy Award.

The vampires aren't as chalky-white as they were in Twilight, although their makeup still looks awfully thick. Robward looks a lot more natural; even Carlisle doesn't look like he walked through a storm of talcum powder, although he still looks exceeding unnatural, even for a vampire. Maybe I have a big more liking for his character this time around since I've seen him on that Showtime series a few times. Can't remember the name, but he plays a sex-crazed doctor who can't keep his hands to himself.

But Jasper: for the love of God, makeup artists, tone down the hair. It's far too poofy; it practically has a life of its own. And those lips, always pursed, always looking as if he has some big stick shoved up his butt and is afraid to smile for fear of dropping it.

Alice is a doll, always fun to watch. Rosalie is still a bitch, although we find out a little more about why she's a bitch.

But why was the movie so bright? I know that there weren't many vamps around, so they don't have to have such dull days so they can come outside, but New Moon is the darkest book of the series. Bella's depression, Edward's pain at leaving her (the bloodsucking scum), Jacob's pain at becoming a werewolf without any forewarning, his pain at having to stay away from Bella in order to protect her from himself, his pain because Bella just sees him as a friend. Not even a friend with benefits. It's dark. It's brooding.

Now, it's not all sunny and summery by any means, it's just not as dark visually as the first one was.

It was such a treat to see New Moon on a huge screen. I rarely go to the movies; the last one was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I don't even remember how long ago that was. I saw Twilight first on our tv then on my laptop; the whole thing is definitely a lot more effective and enjoyable when the characters are larger than life.

I went with my niece, Kara, and her friend. We did the whole movie thing; $6 popcorn with "butter" that leaked out the bottom of the container and $4 bottles of water. Water. I should've brought a bigger purse and taken in some small bottles of wine. It would have been less expensive that way. Kara and Virginia are Team Jacob, while I'm Team Edward, so we disagreed about some fundamentals (cold made-up abs vs 108 degree real abs), but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Yes. Werewolves' temps run around 108. And vamps are cold and hard as stone. Didn't you know that? Did you want to know?

4 hours.....

*ducks and runs*

4 hours and 25 minutes......

Even I am finding this tedious.

Five hours.....

Still no new copier, but I find that I care about that less and less.

So, Blogger, why are you being such a pain in the ass about linking?

Finally. Someone who gets it.

Pretty much sums it up.


Edited to add: Shit. Click on this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/18/AR2009111804145.html

Less than six hours......

And for those other obsessive-compulsive crazed members of Team Edward, this photo amuses me. It's from http://www.twilightheaded.com/.

Click on photo to get the full effect.

10.5 hours.......

*corners market on Shamwow (tm thingy)*

29 hours......

.......Until

Dear US Preventive Services Task Force: Bite me.

So some task force has decided that women shouldn't be screened for breast cancer, or even do a monthly self-exam, because it's not cost-effective for women under the age of 50. Evidentally women don't get breast cancer and die from it until they're at least in their 50s.

Just who are these people anyway? It's not the American Cancer Society's researchers who've come up with this gem. I suspect it's a bunch of bureaucrats who looked at the bottom line and decided that the government won't want to pay for all those "unnecessary" tests once the government assumes the mantle of Health/Death Experts.

Do you want to let these people (and I'll go out on a limb here and say that I bet most of them are men) take care of our health care/insurance system? What's next, no screening for cervical cancer, or prostate cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, any other killer? What will happen when an elderly person needs a new hip or knee? Sorry, it has to go to someone younger who'll be able to take advantage of it longer? How about those really expensive injections of Lucentis that help to preserve vision in people with wet macular degeneration? Hey, that includes me. I guess that $2000 per course of treatment would be better used to what, give a new liver to some rock star? How about all those babies born so early that they'd die without medical intervention? How would you feel if your child or grandchild had some horrible illness with a relatively low rate of survival? Would you be okay with not treating that illness because it isn't cost-effective? Would the powers that be allow my oldest granddaughter to have SupprelinLA, at a cost of close to $20,000 per year, to let her have the opportunity to grow normally and not start her period at age 6? All kinds of health risks are associated with precocious puberty. Since those risks affect a small number of the population--mostly girls--should we just let a bunch of men in suits decide that the effort doesn't justify the amount of money spent, won't help enough people (read: girls) to make it worth the money?

What if it's decided that anxiety and depression aren't really chemical imbalances that are relatively easy to treat with medication? Will we be told to just suck it up and soldier on?

I'm scared.

Don't ask what the handwritten sign on the back of my front door says.

I've locked myself out of the house twice this week. It's only Tuesday, so that means I also did it on Monday.

I'm getting tired of forcing my way into the house. So I wrote a little reminder to my 6 a.m. self.

It's not pretty.

Damn you, Burger King

Just because I can

Four nights from now, I'll be sitting in a theater with my niece Kara watching "New Moon".







And we'll be drooling.

There's nothing better than aunt/niece bonding!