weekend happenings

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Saturday, Dave had to work all day (poor guy), so I took advantage of my day alone to tidy up & do the five or six loads of laundry that had been piling up. (I’m such the domesticated little wifey, no?)Somewhere near the end of the day, I went into the laundry room, and there was a mouse on top of the washing machine. Not that mice are uncommon out in the boonies where we live, but usually when I find them, one or more of our cats are playing with and/or nibbling on their lifeless little bodies. So this mouse was noteworthy because it’s the first live one that I’ve ever seen in our house. He was very little, and sort of cute. He didn’t run away either, he just sat there and stared at me. He had a ding in one of his ears, and he reminded me a little bit of Ralph Mouse from those Beverly Cleary books. Like if I got him a little toy motorcycle and half a ping-pong ball to wear as a helmet, he’d be Evil Knievel-ing all over our house. But, then reality sets in, and I know that he’s probably carrying Bubonic Plague or something equally horrible, so we’re supposed to be enemies. And besides, if the cats find him, he will meet a very prompt untimely demise. I was thinking about putting a pot over him and scooting him off the edge of the washer and using the lid as a base, so I could take him somewhere safe (like the woods) and set him free, but I’m pretty sure those little critters can run pretty fast when they want to, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to catch him.

So I ran into the next room, grabbed the phone & called my mom. She told me to put one of the cats in the room with the mouse and close the door. Keep in mind that while we were talking, I had walked back into the laundry room, and the mouse was still sitting there, just looking at me. And dammit, he was so cute, and I didn’t want to listen to the cats kill him – the little mouse death screech is a sound that makes me cry and I absolutely can’t stand it. So I got off the phone with my mom and called Kris. She told me that I should make my husband deal with it. Luckily, around that time, my husband came home. I ran to the front door to get him, and by the time we went into the laundry room, the mouse was gone. I hope he found his way out of the house, but most likely, he’s probably in the wall behind the washing machine. Great. Stay tuned, folks, I think we’ll probably be seeing Mr. Ralph S. Mouse again sometime.

Totally unrelated: I don’t usually talk about my dreams here, because they’re usually very random and strange (whose aren’t?), but I had one on Saturday about another blogger, so I thought I’d share. I dreamed that Sally came to visit me, along with her dog, Lulu Mae Barnes. Only I kept calling her (Sally, not Lulu) by her pseudonym, not her real name. And she was really, REALLY pregnant. Like to the point where she was talking about how she was going to be induced if the kid didn’t come out on its own in the next week. And then, she, Lulu, Teenie and I broke into my next door neighbor’s house just to be nosy and see how they decorated the place. Admittedly, in real life the outside of their house is god-awful, so I am somewhat curious to know what’s going on inside. But yeah, that was weird. Especially since I’ve never actually met Sally in real life, although I think that the next time I’m in my hometown, we should totally meet up & go out for creamy margaritas. (Note to Sally: That’s assuming that you aren’t 9 months pregnant at the time, like you were in my dream.)

Movies watched this weekend:
* Hide and Seek – What a pile of crap. Yes yes, Dakota Fanning is a brilliant little child actress, but seriously. Every scary movie cliche you can think of was used in this movie. Shaky light fixtures and unreliable sources of electricity? Check. Something scary in yonder bathroom looms? Check. (Side note: what is up with scary things happening in bathrooms? I can think of at least a dozen movies off the top of my head where this happens. Does it have something to do with “Psycho”?) Creepy children’s singing voices? Check. Dopey policeman? You got it. Knife rack and one of the knives is missing? No doubt.
* Constantine – I’m still not sure what I thought of this. I guess it was ok? It was very weird. I think Dave liked it. Um, I don’t really have anything else.

random boring stuff

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I survived the dentist with very minimal freak-outs. I have 4 cavities, which is the same as I had 6 months ago – but sadly, my insurance company sucks and only covers 20% of my fillings, which means I have to come up with several hundred dollars to pay for them, and… yeah. It’ll get done, eventually. Meanwhile, I’m trying to just pretend like I don’t know about them. Please don’t tell me how bad an idea that is. I can’t hear you, la la la la.

I got all excited because the weather was really mild yesterday, and again today (high in the low 70’s), and I started making plans of how Dave and I can do stuff outside this weekend, like using our new grill, or cleaning the garage, all that fun stuff. But according to weather.com, it’s going to be in the upper 80’s again this weekend. Which means that if we try to clean out the garage, we’ll last all of 15 minutes before we die of heat exhaustion. Hm, perhaps not.

In other news, I just got this exercise video collection (and I am NOT typing the name of it here because I don’t need those types of Google hits, thank you very much; let’s put it in code and call it “C@rm3n El3ctr@’s A3r0b1c Str1pt3@se”), and I love-love-love it. It feels very silly at first, and I was all self-conscious and kept worrying that Dave was going to stick his head in the room and ask me what in the sam hell I thought I was doing. But I’ve done it twice now, and I have muscles aching today that I haven’t felt in a while, because, well, let’s just say it works *entirely* different muscle groups than walking or jogging, which is basically all I’ve been doing lately. So that’s pretty cool.

And the exercise thing is good, particularly since I had the very healthy lunch today of leftover pizza. Which has the very unfortunate side effect of making me feel something like this:
See how skinny I am in the morning?
And see how not skinny and unhappy I am now?

Yeah, the pizza? Is not my friend. (As a side note, aren’t my artistic skills impressive? The stringy hair in particular is frighteningly dead accurate.) But all is well, because I shall go home tonight and prance around like a big ho in the privacy of my living room. And pray that if there’s a God in heaven that my neighbors don’t have binoculars aimed in my vicinity.

put on a grumpy face

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In about an hour, I have to go to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. Which is not that big a deal unless you suffer from dental anxiety, which I do, or if you’re a regular flosser, which I am not. Well, actually, I go through phases with the flossing. Sometimes I’m really good for weeks and weeks. Lately? Not so much. I actually totally forgot about the dentist appointment until they left me a reminder message on my voicemail the other day. So in other words, you’re coming in tomorrow, too late to start flossing now! You’re busted! I guess I’ll just fess up and admit that I haven’t, rather than lie about it. What are they going to do, make the sharp pointy metal thing prodding my gums even more painful than usual? HA! I’d like to see them try! I actually have a very accomodating dentist, they give you headphones and a remote to a little TV on the ceiling so you can distract yourself while they’re torturing you. Love that technology.

Anyway, because of this, I am in a very bad mood today. Oh oh oh! And remember the drugs my dermatologist gave me for that weird outbreak I was having? Well, they worked, and my skin totally cleared up. Which was great. So I stopped taking the drugs. And now? The zits are back. WTF?? So yeah, that isn’t helping my mood one bit. Y’all might want to think about sending Dave a sympathy card, as I have not exactly been the most pleasant little ball of sunshine to live with lately.

fun with fruit

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Not a whole lot happened this weekend. Dave and I got haircuts on Friday, we went to some friends’ wedding on Saturday (which was lovely), and we chilled out most of the day on Sunday. Actually, Dave chilled out, and I apparently went into hyper nesting mode or something. I don’t know where this came from – I got up on Sunday and made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. Then, since I had already established a theme of healthy and nutritious eating for the day, I spent about an hour in our yard picking blackberries so I could make a cobbler. I’ve never attempted to make a cobbler before (I consider myself sort of mediocre on the whole baking thing), so I had no idea how many blackberries I needed. I think I ended up with something like half a gallon. I only needed 2-1/2 cups for the recipe. Oops. I hope blackberries freeze well, but I guess we’ll find out for ourselves in the near future.

Oh, and for the record? I didn’t even begin to make a dent in the overall blackberry population of our yard. They are everywhere. Which is sort of a mixed blessing – I love blackberries, but the bushes here grow like kudzu and will take over the whole yard if we don’t keep them trimmed back. And what with the thorns, it’s almost impossible to trim them ourselves without getting sliced to ribbons. So we actually have a landscaping service that’s supposed to come sometime in the next couple of weeks to cut them back. Which is probably why this is the first time all year that it suddenly occurred to me that, hey! Our blackberries are going to go away! I should go retrieve as many as possible and make fattening desserts with them! (Well, that, and the fact that August is really the first time of year that they’re ripe enough to eat.)

I meant to take pictures of the before and after – the huuuuge bowl of fresh blackberries that I picked, and the really pretty cobbler after it came out of the oven – but the camera was upstairs and I am lazy, so alas, I have no pretty food photos to share. Maybe next time. Meanwhile, here’s the recipe that I used for blackberry cobbler, which is awesome and super-easy (thanks Google, and bettycrocker.com).

Blackberry Cobbler
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk (I used the lactose-free kind & it still tastes great)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 1/2 cups blackberries – fresh or frozen (thawed & drained)
1 cup sugar

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, salt & milk in an ungreased 8-inch square baking pan or skillet. Stir in butter until blended.
3. Mix blackberries & sugar, let stand about 20 minutes until fruit syrup forms. Spoon over batter.
4. Bake 45-55 minutes until dough rises and is golden.
5. Serve warm with cream, whipped cream or ice cream. (Again, no lactose for me, so we used cool whip, which is non-dairy. Still awesome.)

During the time that the cobbler was baking and then cooling, Dave and I watched the latest episode of “Six Feet Under”, which made me cry. A lot. Honestly, I thought of the cobbler as my reward for such an emotionally harrowing hour of television. Lordy.

boom!

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In honor of my new co-author, I’ve started playing around with my theme to make it less girly, and a bit more Northwest-y. I’ve scrapped the daisies (although I really love that photo, so I may end up reusing them, I’m not sure), and instead I’ve put in the picture of the mountain that Angie liked – and god help me, I wish I knew what mountain that was. All I know is that it’s visible from the ferry dock in Anacortes. So, maybe Whistler? Mt. Baker? Do any of you locals recognize it? Help me out here. I’ve also changed my tagline, sort of the way Cat suggested, but with minor edits.

So, what’s the opinion on the new look? Do we like the mountain, or should we bring back the flowers?

Blogpooling

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In an effort to become more environmentally aware, I have decided to blogpool with Cindy. Not only does blog-pooling result in less harm to the environment, reducing the emission of noxious gases from the internet that are destroying the ozone layer , but it also entitles one to use the HOV lanes on the information superhighway. You want to double your bandwidth and help the cause? Blogpooling is the way to go!

But seriously; it appears that I am such a clutz for allowing some idiot spammer to hack my site that I’ve had to shut it down for now. Not that I was exactly prolific, but it still pissed me off none the less. For now though, Cindy has a new blog-buddy.

Yay!

new author

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Since Dave’s blog went away (tons o’ comment spam + never posting = why bother keeping it?), I set him up with an account here. So, you may now start seeing the occasional post from my darling husband. Of course, if he becomes a regular contributor on poobou.com, I’m going to have to change my little tagline, because my blog won’t be all about the nerdy southern girl anymore, but about her significant other as well. Hmm, how to sum up both of our lives in one quick, catchy phrase? That’ll be a challenge. Anyway, be on the lookout to see if he starts writing anything. Or, start leaving him nasty comments and emails telling him to get on the stick and start blogging.