Category: Uncategorized

Tried the Mandarin Orange Poland Spring sparkling water. Not horrid. I’d have it again. The issue is, it smell like orange soda, which I adore, but it tastes like flavored bubbling water, which I also adore, but isn’t the same as a big can of Orange Crush, y’know. So that means I like them all, except for lemon, because it smells too much like dish detergent.

Oh, and when did this obsession start? It was a slow start last fall when I decided to try to cut out soda from my diet (I’m down about 90% in soda consumption, but I reserve the right to keep some Barqs in the fridge.) Then we went on the whirlwind Disney trip in October, and on the concierge level, they had big bottles of Perrier. And when I asked for some to take back to the room one night, they handed me a whole big bottle. I have not been the same since.

The Maxima turned 100,000 miles this morning. That’s 700,000 in dog miles.

Following up on yesterday’s bacon topic…

I noticed in the ad panel that I’m not supposed to mention that someone is selling plans for building your own straw bale house. So like the three little pigs, you could live in a house made of straw. I’m not sure how I feel about this. I actually went to the site because I was having a hard time picturing what they meant, and I’m still not sure. They talk about how it’s fire safe. But how can a straw house be fire safe? And they also talk about how the air in your house will be better because it’s filtered through the straw, but then the pictures show that the straw isn’t even exposed, so how is that possible? Only if you don’t put up real walls? Can you have this kind of house if you have allergies? I would think it’s kind of dusty.

I can imagine I’d go through the massive trouble of building one of these things, and then all God’s woodland creatures would show up and start nibbling on my foundation. That’s all I’d need. So anyway, if I had a lot of land and a bunch of money to just throw away, I’d try to build something out of straw bales, because, hey, I’m a curious person. (Very curious. Like, I want to know what happened to the cement mixer that’s in the junkyard on route 70 in Lancaster. The mixer part looks fine but the cab is completely crushed down from the top. It looks like something was dropped on it) Maybe I could build junior a clubhouse. Or kill two birds with one stone, and build my 3 season room out of straw bales! Ya! Except it wouldn’t have any windows so it wouldn’t really be as functional as a sunroom, but we could use it as storage for Junior’s books! Oh, imagine the possibilities!

I had some bacon this morning (in a “sunshine sandwich”) and I’d do it again, darn it!

For those of you keeping track, I also switched my water order from raspberry-lime Poland Spring Sparkling water (aka “bubble water”) to just lime. I’m all raspberry-limed out. I still don’t like the lemon, and I can’t remember how I feel about the orange. If I didn’t have so many of the bottles at home available to bring in, I’d probably try one in the cafeteria.

I organized Junior’s bookcase last night; it had become a huge messy pile of junk. I know I there are probably quite a few that I could pull off that bookcase and store somewhere else, but I need to find the “somewhere else” first. I don’t want to get rid of them, but I don’t want to put them out on display, either. If I ever got the spare room cleaned up, I could put a bookcase in there for his extras and my own. I cleaned up that room once this year, so much so that you could actually walk around in it, but it’s back to being a complete mess. I think it’s time to start throwing things out again. And find a new home for our luggage. It’s times like this that I dislike living in a cape, because you are in the attic when you’re on the second floor, so there’s no attic storage. Boo, Hiss. This was only supposed to be our “starter house” anyway. Tomorrow, we’ll have been in it for 11 years. Not really a “starter house” if you never move out of it, huh?

Our 12th anniversary was last month, and we got our official gift over the weekend at my favorite favorite favorite gallery in Rockport. (A quick backstory – I’ve always loved the work of this photographer. I have longed for some of his pieces for 10 or more years, but for a long time, buying stuff to hang on the walls was just not in our budget. But I still knew I wanted some of his stuff. And then my brother-in-law went and bought some of his pieces for my sister! Wait, he is MY favorite photographer! Anyhoo…after 10 years of going to his gallery and leaving empty-handed, my time had come! We found a piece that we both loved, and while we couldn’t get the largest version they had, we did get the next size down.

To see it, got to the Andrew Borsari Gallery website and click the landscape link. Our photo is on page 3 of 6, and it’s the one called Green Fields (Three Hills). It was taken in California this past February, and you have to trust me that this little picture doesn’t do it justice. The two trees are the only things on these three rolling hills, and the cloud and the shadows and…and…I love it.

I think if my contract gets renewed here (right now, things are kind of iffy because of some roles being moved, which is a problem) I’m going to buy another one. The only problem will be decided which one.