Author: The Jody

That’s my version of TGIF…I call it “Who Cares If It’s Friday?”

It’s a rainy yucky day out (see, I TOLD you it was going to keep getting worse) and we basically stayed in all day. Junior wanted to go out on his swingset but then we realized it’s just misting and yucky and he agreed to wait until this weekend when it clears up. Now that he knows how to pump and swing by himself, he’s in heaven with his swingset. Thank goodness! I was hoping to get some use out of it.

So we watched Peter Pan, so Cartoon Network, played computer games, made pretzels from scratch, and I made apple crisp. The pretzels had been on my to-do list for a while. I thought it would be a good project because it’s cooking AND it’s artsy. Well, he liked putting the ingredients in the bowl, but thought the kneading was yucky. Then he got bored with the creative part and basically made 3 snakes. I did two circles, two regular pretzel shapes, and an M. They taste okay…not so much like pretzels, more like, well, bread. But on the biscuity side. Edible, sure, but they’re no Auntie Anne’s.

The apple crisp is my friend Beth’s recipe. Well, her aunt’s. This house smells FANTASTIC. I don’t want to cook anything else, because it will ruin the smell. Mmmmm. Baking apples and cinnamon. It would be nice to have someone to spend Friday night with who would actually appreciate homemade pretzels and apple crisp. I’m just sayin’.

I wonder if yesterday was the last 80+ degree day of the year. I think it might have been, and I did enjoy it appropriately. After cruising job websites for 3 hours or so, I joined Junior out on the swingset. He had his standard-issue rubber piece-as-seat swing hanging on chains, and I had my “Air Chair” hanging on the other side. I can’t believe I forgot to put this puppy up before this week. It’s a sort of sling-chair that I guess was invented to hang under airplane wings, or something like that. (I believe I’ve written about this before, but I won’t let that stop me.

So I grabbed the library book I’m reading, Mermaids on the Moon” (excellent novel), and joined Junior outside. Then I mowed the back lawn, because it was very very very long. Then I rested in the air chair for another 30 minutes or so after mowing. The air chair has a cup holder (of course) so my bottle of water was rights within easy reach.

Today it’s drizzly and about 20 degrees colder than it was yesterday. The difference is startling. And knowing that today is more typical for the rest of the year than yesterday is just sad.

You know how I tell you that I like to window shop at Amazon.com? Well I don’t like to window shop in real life. I had to go to the mall for something today, and once my errand was done, I took my time walking back to the car. I cut through Belden Jewelers and just glanced in the ring cases, as I’m just browsing for a sapphire ring. Wouldn’t you know it, I saw one I really really liked and it was only $149. Of course, that’s $149 I don’t. I wish it had been $1,499, then it wouldn’t be tempting at ALL. Of course, I was looking at the lab-made stones, so I knew the price would be better.

I wish it was already Christmas, and that someone was shopping for me. I’d send them down to the mall asap. Oh, and they could add-on the really awesome sapphire bracelet that was a mere $799. Or hell, just mail me the money and I’ll get it myself. *wink*

I just saw the final numbers for my Q3 Amazon Associate account and it looks like I made a whole 47.49 this quarter! That’s awesome stuff, given that the amount of money I pay to run the Big DumpTruck website recently doubled (well THAT’S not a pleasant surprise!). Silly me, I forgot to make a lot of money during the dot.com boom, and even though I’ve been running the site since 1996, I’ve never made any profit. Not a dime. But I guess it’s a less expensive hobby than, say, world travel.

So kids, now that it’s getting time for holiday shopping, stop by the blog or the main dump before you head over to Amazon, Click on the Amazon Link, and you’ll be helping me. Oh, and if you want to buy a fifty dollar book or something, drop me a line and I’ll build you a custom link so I’ll get a little extra. Thanks. You’re all swell.

With a complete lack of anything else meaningful to do I am in prep mode for the release of Jonah this weekend. I suspect that I’m too excited and it will have to disappoint me. I’m willing to risk it.

I found a copy of the soundtrack to Jonah on sale and picked it up. Oh my gosh, what fun! There were some people complaining on Amazon that the songs aren’t all done by the Veggie gang, but I have to tell you, my two favorite songs on the soundtrack are done by real contemporary Christian rock/pop bands. Now My CC collection begins and ends with Michael W. Smith, but I’m not averse to expanding my horizons. Either way, the song “In the Belly of the Whale” by the Newsboys should be on every radio station’s playlist in a few weeks. That is an AWESOME song. Great writing, great production, I just love it.

Okay, enough about that. I need to start thumbing through a book I bought on web-based training. I know that writing blog entries is more fun, but that’s actually career-building stuff.