The Big DumpTruck

I have owned the bigdumptruck.com domain for 13+ years now. I use BigDumptruck as my user name on a lot of sites (including twitter and flickr). I also collect Department 56 Christmas buildings (I started with the Dickens Village, supplemented with a couple of New England Village houses but for the past 4 years or so I've become obsessed with the North Pole Series - the fun Santa's Village buildings.

Last year I spotted a must-have: Dumpy's Toy Trucks. It's a dumptruck, tilted back! See the wheels and the cab and the hood?! It's awesome, and was my choice for the house I could buy this year. I don't think they'll come out with one any time soon that I like as much (or is as appropriate for me).

Labels: dumptruck, flickr, holidays, photos

Yes, 2009 sucked. A lot of people had very bad 2009s. I'm not here to talk about that, but I've had better. 2008 was pretty bad, but 2009... yuck with a rotten cherry on top.

I'm not sure how I feel going into 2010, other than that it feels like it's too soon to be 2010. Where did 2004 go? Huh? Did we skip some days in 2006? I think maybe we did, because I swear, I was paying attention.

Anyhoo, I hope that like me, you stocked up on Bitch Bubbly and raw cookie dough. Settle in kids, we have us a new decade to welcome.

Labels: holidays

Sorry I forgot to wish you a Merry Christmas. It isn't that I didn't want to wish you a merry Christmas, it's just that I did not get around to sending you that message. So instead, I'm going to say "Merry Monday Night, you should have some pizza." I think that covers all of the important things I want for you. And while you are eating your pizza you should order yourself a t-shirt off the internet, and pay for it yourself, and write "from Jody" if there is a spot to send a message. Because I only wish the best for you.

Labels: gifts, holidays

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope the Stuffing Fairy gives you the big smackdown this year, you all deserve it, each and every one of you. Yes, even you, lady who was driving 30 in a 40 this morning and causing me irreparable stress damage. Oh, I certainly do think it's great that you didn't have to go to work today! You're so lucky! I know, taking your car for a stroll is a GRAND thing to do at 7:30 in the morning. Don't mind me, I'll just have my front bumper jammed up your tail pipe.

Anyway, my foot fell asleep, and now the rest of me is all jealous. I'm going to go tuck myself in. You stay beautiful, you hear?

Labels: happy, holidays, thanksgiving

I am sad to announce that I will not be able to decorate my house to the level that I would like to this holiday season. I would like to cover the house with so many lights that you can see it from space. Sure, the neighbors might not like it, but really, who can stay angry at twinkly lights? Nobody, that's who!

I don't own enough lights to accomplish my dream, nor do I have the manpower available to me to do it. I guess it will have to wait until after I become rich and famous. And have a lot more energy to do stuff like this.

I also pulled out the two shrubs that I normally put lights on every year. That seemed like a good idea until I realized I can't put lights out on these shrubs any more because they aren't there any more. Huh.

So last year, during the January "everything 75% off" sale at Target I bought a little fiber optic tree. Last week I tracked it down so we could see how tall it was. Not tall enough to use as our only tree, not by a long shot. But of course, now that it's set up, I think I'll leave it, just so I have a little something to make me happy. And here it is:

Labels: happy, holidays, lights, video

I didn't get you a present. I got you a card but I couldn't find it this morning. I asked my son to make one for you because everyone loves a card made by a child but he started drawing robots and Pokemon and eventually it looked nothing like a birthday card with all the eraser shavings.

So I don't have a card or a present or cake, because I threw out all the cake mixes a couple of weeks ago. Did you know they have a date stamped on the bottom and when they hit about 2 years past the date on the bottom of the box you are really probably not supposed to make them. I think it has something to do with not wanting to get sick and die from eating elderly cake mix. Or something.

In your honor, I did wash out the inside of my rubbish barrel today. Oh, and I put more windshield washer fluid in the car. As you can see, it's been a very busy morning for me. Happy birthday, I hope you have as awesome a day as I'm having!

P.S. I don't really like having your birthday on a Saturday. Can we try to avoid this in the future? Thanks.

Labels: holidays, letters

Some very good friends of mine declared today to be Saint Jody Day. Who am I to argue? I thought I should pass along info about the holiday in case you too want to celebrate. It doesn't have to be a big flashy SJD celebration, mind you, but there are a few traditions which I am starting and should be followed by all celebrants.

1. The eating of the crispy bacon. This year, SJD falls on a Friday, so it is bacon day. But henceforth, every St. Jody's Day shall be baconified.
2. The listening of 80s music. Oh yes. Every Carma Chameleon will Wang Chung tonight.
3. The wearing of the green pants. This is a toughie. This will weed out the wannabes. And yes, olive counts as green.
4. The accepting of offerings from the masses. You know, if there is a mass and it wants to offer something, I will accept it.
5. The writing with the purple pen. St. Jody only uses two types of mass-produced pen, both available at area retailers. Either the Pilot Precise V5, or the Pilot Easytouch (Harder to find in purple - I, however, have one.)

Go forth and have fun!

Labels: funny, holidays

When I dropped Junior off at his "before school" care program, a little kid, maybe in the first grade, ran up to him.

"How come you aren't wearing a hat like mine?" The hat in question was a green plastic leprechaun hat covered with green glitter. It was truly a thing of beauty, probably the nicest green plastic leprechaun hat you can buy at a party store. My son just stared at the boy.

"Where is your hat? And where is your shirt like mine?" Junior was wearing a green shirt, but it did not say "Kiss me I'm Irish" with a fuzzy shamrock in the middle.

"Ya, where is your hat?" I asked my son in an accusatory tone, in support of the short child in front of us.

Junior just looked at me.

"You should be wearing a hat." The small boy smiled at me.

"I don't have a hat like that," Junior explained to him.

"You should totally get one." I told him as the small boy and I nodded conspiratorially. "It's a really awesome hat."

Labels: holidays, odd

I am doing the happy happy joy joy dance! 5 more days off in a row! Who doesn't love that?

Labels: holidays, Vacation

I was going to attempt to give you guys a link a day for the December Advent season, as my gift to you. But I forgot to do it Monday and Tuesday and now it seems late.

So I will pass along one of the cooler links I've run into recently. It's a Hubble Telescope Advent calendar. Man oh man, space photos blow me away, ever time. I snipped the url for you, but it points to Boston.com

http://snipurl.com/coolsky

Labels: fun, holidays

Happy food coma day, everyone! Remember, though - gravy is not a substitute for love. Or root beer.

I am thankful for each and every one of you, but especially the people who invented gumballs. You rock.

Labels: holidays

Today is a good day. Many good things happened in history on this day. 11 years ago on this day I had dinner in the Houston airport. 14 years ago on this day I visited Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth NH. 15 years ago on this day we started a 10 day vacation at Walt Disney World.

See how great a day this is?

Oh the Disney thing? It was our honeymoon.

*smooches* to Mister Dump for 15 great (and interesting) years! (And they said I'd kill you in your sleep it wouldn't last!! Ha! See how little they knew?)

Labels: happy, holidays

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in the United States. (Hey, I have at least one international reader that will admit to it, so let me just pretend I'm I web sensation the world over, would you?) I got my mother's day present earlier (some high quality headphones for my iPod to do a better job of blocking out stray conversations at work) and certainly wasn't expecting anything on Sunday.

But Junior wrote me a poem (I will share it tomorrow, because I don't remember it verbatim and I want to make sure I don't miss a thing) and gave me a little pot with seeds planted in it. I believe the flowers will be marigolds, but he was calling it something else, so we'll see.

We packed up and headed out to Newport to meet up with my brother-in-law and his wife who were up here taking their belated honeymoon. And my new sister-in-law presented me with my "other" Mothers Day Present: salt. I got salt for mother's day! I'll bet nobody else out there can say that!!! I got salt hand-carried all the way from Houston! And I'm beside myself thrilled!

You see, we eat at Bertucci's a lot, and they have Cefalu Sea Salt grinders on the table, and I love this salt more than many many things in my life. Every time we go there (a couple of times a month) I threaten to steal the salt off the table, because we have never been able to find it for sale anywhere. Apparently, Mr. Dump wrote down the name and phone number of the import company and did a ton of footwork to try to track it down. The company would only sell it by the case but apparently there's a liquor store chain in Houston that carries it, and he somehow convinced my SIL to wait in line for 40 minutes (!) to buy me 5 shakers of Cefalu salt (she also bought one for herself). And they gave it to me yesterday and I was bouncing with happiness! No longer do I need to fight the urge to steal!

This is darned tasty salt. It's hard to explain how salt can taste good, but it just tastes, well, salty. It's 100x better than anything you pour out of a round box into a shaker, and you grind it yourself with the built in grinder-top. The bottle says it's imported from Sicily, 100% natural, made only by the Sea and the Sun. Maybe it's the sun that makes it extra good. I recommend that you all go to Bertucci's and try some.

So yes, I got salt for mother's day. And I couldn't be happier.

Labels: food, gifts, happy, holidays

Saw this at the mall last night when I was running an errand. Hard to tell if it was coming or going, but I assume it's up for the Mother's Day crowd.

For the record, I do not want to go to a mall parking lot carnival for Mother's Day. Sure, I'm a fan of mall parking lot carnivals in general, but not for Mother's Day. Those are for Father's Day.

Labels: fun, holidays, photos, weather

Hellish morning! First I don't want to wake up but the stupid birds (I hate them with a white hot fire that consumes my soul) are back. I guess I need to figure out how to borrow a shotgun again. Oh, and then? No hot water.

And after all that, I go down stairs and the entire first floor is missing. I have no idea if the dog buried it in the back yard or what.

I hate April Fool's Day.

:-)

Labels: complaints, holidays, humor

We could skip the candy if you would just bring me a warm, sunny day. I realize that Easter is way early this year, so normally we're dealing with April temps instead of March ones, but still, I have certain expectations about Easter that just aren't going to be met.

Historically (and I mean back when I was a kid through recent years with my kid) after Easter dinner we would get in the car and drive over to the Leominster State Forest and look for salamanders and fish. I know, seems silly, but you must know, Easter Bunny, that you were the one who would bring us the butterfly nets that we used to catch the salamanders. You do remember that, don't you?

We took all the kids (and when I say that I'm referring to my son, niece and nephew) to the park a couple of times to either throw a frisbee, a baseball, or fly a kite. All things I do not want to do tomorrow because it's going to be too cold. So I'll ask again; instead of sugary stuff, can you give me a 55 degree day with puffy clouds and no wind? That would rock. (Of course, I wouldn't turn down the warm day AND some of those chocolate covered marshmallow rabbits that I love...)

Labels: fun, holidays, kids, weather

I do no like my winter shoe selection. I'm quite unhappy with it, to be honest. I don't have enough very comfortable shoes that are also stylish. It's hard to keep your feet happy when you have to go to work somewhere with dress code. Granted, I'm not trapped in nylons and high heels (I'd quit) but still, they'd be happier if I was than with my personal take on business casual.

So yesterday, when it hit 50-ish, I was actually wondering to myself if it was time to take the sandals out of storage. 50! You know last fall, when it dropped to 50 for the first time, that was not even a consideration. I practically wrapped my feet in wool and animal skins to keep them warm. But in spring, why a 45 degree day feels like summer!

This morning it was snowing when I woke up. I can totally understand why winter is a depression-a-thon. The sandals will have to wait for another day. Certainly not Easter Sunday, which looks like it will have a high of 37 for the day. Ya. 37. Nuff said.

Labels: holidays, shoes, weather

I did not realize I forgot to post my New Year's Eve story. I apologize for making you wait so long. The shame of it all!

But seriously, Mr. Dump and Junior and I stayed home. Step-Junior went out to dinner with some friends but was home by 10-ish. We stayed up to watch the ball drop, our only snack companion some cheese and crackers, and onion dip and chips. (I think I may have out-grown onion dip. Seriously. 4 or 5 chips and I was done).

The men-folk wanted to watch some true-crime thing on the History Channel, but that is not really festive, if you ask me. We ended up watching a DVD of Will Ferrell's "greatest" SNL bits. (I have a hard time believing some of the ones chosen were the best he did in 7 years with SNL, but I did not produce the dvd.)

At about 5 minutes of midnight we put the tv back on network television so we could watch the ball drop. We watch the countdown, 5. 4. 3. *click* We're suddenly watching something on I think the Discovery Channel.

So we missed moment the ball finished dropping. We rang in the New Year with completely puzzled looks on our faces. Now we have a Tivo, and it automatically records things that we ask it to, but there is some kind of bug with ours because it's SUPPOSED to ask us if we want to cancel the pending recording and stay on what we're watching, but it only does that I'd say 30% of the time now. Often it will just unceremoniously dump you into a new program. Picture the famous "Heidi Bowl" football game from 1968 - with 64 seconds left in the game, the network cut to a showing of the movie Heidi and anyone watching on television missed a 14 point comeback. Our Tivo often "Heidi"s us, often at very inappropriate times.

So we missed the actual moment it became 2008. So did it happen?

Labels: holidays, sports, television

Why am I not finished with my Christmas shopping? I do not understand - I am usually better than this. I have people I need to buy things for that I will not see after Friday, so I have to get my royal butt in gear right away.

I'm happy to hear we might see more snowflakes tonight. That's great news. My street is still completely covered with hard-packed snow so this will really help out in that department. Ye Olde Minivan has zero traction as it is, so I think this may put me in some sort of physics black hole with negative traction. If I was better at science I could explain to you how negative traction works, but I am not very good at science, or math for that matter. I can't wait until Junior gets to the point where I am no longer of service to him for math homework. I think I have another year before I hit that point.

Labels: holidays, shopping, weather

I told you we had good seats! Actually, when we got the tickets we assumed we were in the 6th and 7th rows. However, when we got there we realized the rows started with C, not A, so we were in the 4th and 5th rows.

So that was two Sundays in a row we went to Spinners games. What the heck am I going to do *this* Sunday, now that it's a habit?

In non-baseball chatter, anyone doing anything fun for the 4th? We're going to just roll out of bed late, fire up the laptops and the grill, and relax. I suppose if I were really awesome like Chuck (http://flickr.com/photos/plastereddragon/) I would have planned a day out taking photos, complete with maps, GPS and a field guide to small bugs and flowers. Maybe I'll just take more photos of my feet, as they are creepily very popular and got a lot of people into my photo stream. (My foot picture is actually of gumballs, with the feet used as a reference for the size of the container.) If I'm going to do that, I'm going to have to put a new coat or two of nail polish on my toes. Too bad I don't own white and blue, I could make little flags!

Labels: baseball, feet, holidays, photos, summer

I can't promise that if you go to Target and buy their exclusive red Peeps that you will have as much luck as I did dinosaur hunting, but you never know.

Labels: flickr, holidays, photos, Target