The Big DumpTruck

This if from yesterday. Junior and I watched as they broke through to the top. It was a momentous occassion, and we all high-fived each other. We're really getting along well with our new friends.

Too see the full ant set on flickr, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigdumptruck/sets/72157600038021830/

Labels: ants

This is what I saw when I checked the Yahoo headlines this morning. I wonder if they are doing April Fool's Day a day early?

Labels: weather

The ants arrived in the mail yesterday. Mr. Dump received them, and the first thing he saw when he opened the package was the following warning:
CAUTION! DO NOT TOUCH THESE ANTS
The harvester ant can inflict a painful sting that normally causes local swelling and itching. If you are stung apply ice to the area until the pain subsides. If symptoms persist see your physician. Persons who are allergic to stinging insects should be especially careful as they may need emergency medical attention in the event of an allergic reaction.

Oh my God. Killer ants are in my house. Did you ever see the movie Phase IV? That's what I'm picturing. Mr. Dump IS allergic to bee stings, so I'm pretty sure he was ever so happy to have received this package today. My fear is that knowing how clumsy Junior is, this container is going to hit the floor, smash open, and the ants will fly onto our faces. Or something like that. I can tell you, if something did happen (the lid seems REALLY secure) I wouldn't be trying to wrangle them back into the container. Can you say "Look out! It's a shoe!" little ant people?

When I have more time, I'll have to see if I can get a close up of one of them for you. They look pretty fierce. They were completely creeping me out last night because They hadn't started tunneling yet, so they were freaking out trying to climb the sides and there's something unsettling with a bunch of ants walking around on top of something as opposed to ants making tunnels and stuff. That is definitely less creepy to me.

Labels: ants, flickr, holy_crap, photos

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

By the way, the groundhog was full of groundhog doo this year. Early spring my shiney hiney. (Is that worse than saying "my ass"? I was trying to keep my Y7 to PG rating. You know, in case Junior decides to see if I'm talking about him.)

Don't forget to get your free iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts on Wednesday. Not all locations will participate, as it's up to the franchisee I suppose, so check before you order. Mr. Dump is plotting out the route he's going to take to make sure he can hit as many locations as humanly possible. But don't worry, he will be ordering decafs. But that many decafs probably equals at least one real cup of coffee, right?

The last of the snow slid off the roof of my van this morning, so I'm ready for spring.

Labels: coffee, dunkin_donuts, spring

The Leominster Target once again has Pepsi Icees! All is right with the
world.

(And don't try to shake me with the "Burger King has Coke Icees" crap.
These are amazing and the BK drinks taste like foam. No comparison.

I just hope they don't disappear too quickly. I'd like to have another
one next week.

Labels: food, Pepsi, Target

We're watching one of the two Scooby Doo live action movies - you know, the ones with the CGI Scooby and Freddie Prinze Jr. I just realized this is about the fifth time I've watched this one, the Spooky Island one. And you know what? For all the crap reviews it got when it came out, it's not a bad movie. It doesn't make we want to run screaming from the room, which is a big bonus.

Plus, you get the chance to hear Sarah Michelle Gellar say "Hey, I can look at myself naked" which is nice.

So this is how I'm spending my evening. Kind of disappointing, as Mr. Dump and I were supposed to be going out with my sister and her husband and another couple for dinner and a comedy show. You don't know how disappointed I am all all this snow tonight. And I don't think they're going to reschedule the comedy show. I'm all boo-boo faced here.

So what stupid movies have YOU watched many times? On purpose?

Labels: dog, television

Just a shot of the things I need to get me from the house to the office every day.

Labels: coffee, dunkin_donuts, keys, phone, sidekick

Did Tina Cervasio just say a moment was captured by "hundreds of flashing photographers"?

Anyone else picturing a lot of guys in trenchcoats?

Labels: quotes, Red_Sox

On the drive to work this morning (when else?) I heard a Cumberland Farms commercial for their coffee. You know, from that addict who, when her kids are bored, takes them to Cumbies for a "fountain drink". Because nothing eases boredom more than your mom taking you to a convenience store for a sugar and caffeine-based beverage!

This morning she was telling us all that she stupidly thought the coffee at Cumbies couldn't match what they sell at coffee shops, until she tried it. She stated that they use "imported beans". Well doesn't that sound classy! I have to say, I think that even Sanka is made with imported beans, but I could be wrong. Maybe farmers in Indiana have plowed under their corn and wheat to grow coffee. The only domestic coffee I'm aware of (and I'll admit I'm no expert) is Kona, from Hawaii, and that stuff is high quality. Not that people think of Hawaii when they think of something being domestic, of course. Anyhoo, God Bless Cumberland Farms for importing coffee beans. It's about time someone had the nerve to do so!

Labels: coffee, commercials, commute

I had to stop by and see my friend Peg today, and we made arrangements to meet up at Hampton Beach. I of course took at least a couple of photos. This is one that I like just because I'm sort of stunned by how close the Church is to the water slides. As in practically touching. Maybe parents bribe their kids to go to Mass in the summer?

Feel free to check out the whole set on Flickr.

Labels: beach, flickr, humor, winter

As seen at Hampton Beach today. I'm glad Mr. Dump wasn't there to see it. He would have needed medication.

Labels: beach, dunkin, flickr

I'm a teeny bit annoyed right now, because I didn't get to use the camera at all today. This was not the most relaxing day, can I just complain about that. Some woman I don't know was talking to me in the cafeteria yesterday, about how she's just as busy on weekends as she is at work during the week. It's just a different kind of busy. Today was a different kind of busy. We did grocery shopping, laundry, baseball tryouts, Target and Dick's Sporting Goods errands, picked up dog poop in the yard, dishes, more laundry, get the house picked up a bit because Junior is having a sleep over tonight. Oh, ya, his first sleep over.

So I finally sat down to eat something (I had chicken breasts, chicken stock, canned mushrooms (shut up, they work better in the crock pot) and cream of 'shroom soup in the crock pot all day. Served it over No Yolk egg noodles. It made me happy. The boys were eating something else and ended up asking for some of the chicken, and Junior even asked for seconds. I'm still stunned. But they are off playing Roller Coaster Tycoon and I'm finally sitting down at the computer. Ahhhh.

p.s. Baseball tryouts went great. I was terrified he'd be awful because he literally hasn't touched a ball since last summer. He more than held his own in there, and I was SO happy. And hey, when he had me hold his glove during the batting part of tryouts, a kid hit two foul popups into the bleachers and I held out Michael's glove to catch them. Everyone was actually cheering me the 2nd time it happened. In your FACE, other parents!

Labels: baseball, errands, Saturday

I was reading Dilbert creator Scott Adams' blog and he said Google Alerts tell him when people like me are talking about him ("Hi Scott!"). I have had Google Alerts turned on for about two years now, and seriously, the only thing it ever tells me is my reviewer rank on Amazon.com. Which isn't all that great, by the way. Maybe I should review a couple of things, and try to make the reviews helpful while I'm at it.

Before any of you guys feels the need to point out that he's an internationally famous, and might I add, beloved cartoonist, and I'm some slightly crazy woman who can't quite keep up with the dishes while trying to become an internationally famous and beloved writer-photographer-interpretive dancer-Wii Champion.

Well, I'd write more about this, but I think it best if I head over to Amazon and review a couple of things. And then I'm going to play Virus2 for a while (http://www.rfshq.com/forum/games/virus2.swf). Please don't blame me if you get hooked.

Labels: Amazon, famous, Google

Today's lunch: A turkey sandwich with boursin cheese, caramelized onions, tomato and leaf lettuce.

Anyone have a casket? Because I died and went to heaven.

I would have enjoyed it without the turkey, even. I love a boursin and tomato sandwich. Of course, caramelized onions put it over the top. There are only two ways I like to eat onions. Caramelized and in beer-battered rings. Never ever ever raw. But cooked onions (sauteed or deep fried) rule. And french onion soup counts because it is made with caramelized onions.

Sorry, had to find a drool bib just thinking about it.

Friday's List of Jody's Favorite Cheeses
American (sorry, I won't lie)
Feta

Cream Cheese (Does this formally count as a cheese?)
Neufchatel

I'll put up with a lot of the others - I like blue if it's in a stuffed mushroom or salad dressing. Provolone is okay, but not a favorite. On of the few that I can honestly say I don't like is Swiss, which bugs the heck out of Mr. Dump. I just don't like it. I don't like sourdough bread. Swiss cheese is the sourdough bread of cheese.

I'm ambivalent about Wednesdays today. Normally I think they are okay, but today, I'm not so sure. Maybe if it was warmer, or if Wednesday was payday. I may have to move Wednesday slightly further down on the scale.

Then again, it is the halfway point in the workweek, so it has that going for it. (See, I'm not going to say hump day because all the adolescents in the audience will start giggling and I will be forced to give you the stink-eye. You don't want that.)

Wednesday: good or bad?

Labels: nothingness, weekday

Okay, a few weeks in and I am ready to give my twenty five cent view on Idol for the boys.

1. Hair matters, but only if it doesn't. Chris Daughtry didn't have any, and I loved him Chris Sligh has a lot, and I love him.
2. Change your name to Chris.
3. Don't sing a Stevie Wonder or Freddie Mercury song unless you are a complete moron.

There you have it. Good luck, gentlemen!

Labels: Idol

I'm going to give shout-out link love to Mr. Crunchy today. If anyone here loves Disney, or hell, hates Disney, you'll enjoy his DIY Diznee. Beth, this means you. And when I say Beth, I mean both people I know named Beth who are Disney addicts.

I am on my own site a lot, and I tend to use my links to find stuff at Amazon because it's right there. You know, I'm all about ease of use. What I realized is that Amazon dinged me on my commissions for all the times I clicked my own link to buy something. That's not cool. Granted, in the old days, my readers used my links for EVERYTHING and one time I got a check for almost a hundred dollars. That certainly helped out with my hosting fees back in the day.

So instead of using that link when I'm buying stuff (and trust me, I buy a lot of stuff) I am looking to use someone else's link to buy stuff. If you are an Amazon Associate, drop a comment with your link and I'll check out your site. If you are already making money from advertising, be honest and mention that. I'll share the love around, but I'd rather hit the little guys first, as I'm a little guy. I make ZERO money doing this, so I know what it's like. And conversely, feel free to use my links when you are shopping. What are friends for?

Labels: Amazon, money

The cafeteria, ever health conscious (and I say that in a good way) started carrying those trendy "100 Calorie Packs" of snack foods. These are a MUST HAVE if you are trying to reduce your food intake without completely depriving yourself. 100 calories worth of Doritos may not be much, but it's better than no Doritos, or even worse, the Big Grab of Doritos, which is what I used to eat.

Today I tried the Chips Ahoy thin crisps. I did not have much hope for these, I'll admit. I thought they would be along the lines of communion wafers with magic marker dots to represent what should have been chocolate chips. Color me surprised! While much smaller and denser than a regular Chips Ahoy, those chips, while small, were real semi-sweet chocolate! They tasted like cookies, even if not exactly like a home made TollHouse cookie. But for a 100 calorie "get the snack monkey off my back" treat, these rate an A in my book.

See Also: Newton Minis Strawberry. If you like Newtons, these might do the trick. I'm one of those freaky people who actually likes Fig Newtons. But these were a nice alternative. I had a bag the other day, and enjoyed them. I have a bag in front of me that I'm going to save for the weekend, but it says 130 calories a bag. So it's higher than 100, but it's made with whole grain wheat flour (!) so it has that going for it. Neither one is recommended for a low carb diet, but I definitely recommend them for snacks. And the 100 calorie snack bags of Doritos. Those seriously and completely rock.

Not my pants. I have those. My ants. Well, Junior's ants, really. We sent a check to the ant company so that we can let them loose in the Ant farm he got for Christmas. He's dying to get the ants "up and running" but with the pesky lack of ants, it's really much less fun and exciting than the box would lead you to believe.

I know other people have ant farm web cams, but I'm really tempted to do the same. Because I'll just best most of you regulars aren't out watching other people's ant farms on webcams, are you?

Labels: ants, junior