Took a bunch of photos in the yard...



So there's some plants, and a picture out the plane window of my trip to the GI Joe convention.

Soooo.....

Last night we had a unexpected frost. It got down to 34F and thus hit my plants hard. I didn't know it was coming and didn't even cover up anything OR bring in all the potted plants. So... poor Zeke the Gros Michal looks dead. His leaves are limp and brown. I'm really upset because of all the bananas I have, that's the ONE special one that's so rare, it was declared commercially extinct in the 1950s.



Sigh. Poor Zeke. He's owned by a incompetent idiot.

In other news, I've gotten 144 bedding plants, all snapdragons or marigolds. I got 3 flats of the snaps and 1 of the marigolds. I planted marigolds around the edge of the center small circular flower bed, and planted snapdragons around the edges of... everything. I still have 2/3 of a flat left to plant somewhere. I also have multitudes of seeds coming, and just today I got horseradish roots in. Those will be planted to the side, near the property line.



Work has not been as busy but is okay. Next week is not busy at all and it looks like we'll even not open on Tuesday. Not good. I've been really lethargic the last week, and I think the depression is settling in. I did try to be really active when I got home from work for a few days in a row, but then I stopped, just no motivation to do anything.

Hopefully things will improve.

Yup! Walmart got in flats of snapdragons and marigolds! So I have 144 plants to get into the ground today(sunday). So you'd expect I'd get up early, get dressed and out in the yard, planting away and being productive!

So it's noon and I've gotten the "put on a shirt" done. And well, I did read a book a little and ate some peanut butter puddin.

I'll get it done. No doubt. I have a huge list of things to do this weekend. I've already shaved and washed Marmoset, washed dishes, washed the dog laundry once(it gets about three times through the washer), swept and mopped some of the floors and fed the monitor lizards some chicken parts.

I've been eyeballing my back yard. I keep telling msyelf that I have PLENTY to do with the front yard and the house. But I still keeping looking at it and thinking "I should fix it up". One day.... one day I'll get the house presentable. One day my front yard will look inhabited.

One day I'll get to it.

Today...

Work was busy! I had a lot of dogs to groom. Chelsea and I got a lot of critters cleaned and groomed. I gave more of the coffee distillate to one of the vet techs. I think she's addicted. Nice.

I stopped at Walmart and they had some new toys in, I picked up a trooper I'd been looking for. I also got what I needed for peanut butter pudding. I made a giant mixing bowl full, then found out no one at work wants any. Oops. Good thing I like peanut butter pudding.

I moved all the potted plants outside, even the bananas. Then I planted all the bulbs I've bought and 5 heads of garlic(about 30 cloves) and about 30 potatoes. Then I watered everything. I did not uncover the bananas, but I'll do that first thing in the morning.

Tomorrow I have a lot of dogs and a cat to groom, then I'll go by Walmart to pick up some snapdragons. They have them for under $2 for a 6-pack.




And here's a pretty sunrise picture I took some time ago.

Soooo work was crazy. A lot of baths, less grooms. A lot of "I'll pick up late" but they show up early. Linda came by to get the big rats, brought a giant cookie! Yum. It's oily on the underneath which is tasty.

I decided on the drive home that I will attempt to actually get many things done when I get off work. I don't care if I'm exhausted and feel run down... I'll still bust my ass to get things done anyway.

So today I worked, I stopped at Dollar Store on the way home to get lightbulbs and of course ended up with 2 bags of stuff. I got a couple small bins for my art materials and some rice and the lightbulbs.

Then I bagged up all the plant blankets and put them away in the shed where they belong. I threw out the trash bin of rat bedding. I cleaned all the small rat bins. I fed the pythons and cleaned off the counter and set up the rice steamer with a leftover pork chop cut into pieces, a can of black eye peas and it was tasty. I also had to go back out and cover all the plants again, since I checked the weather and it's getting down to 35F tonight.

Now I'm playing GI Joe Jeopardy in Terrordrome chat, and fiddling with the fics a little. Tomorrow I have to try to get a hold of Seph and ship out 3 action figures to someone else.



HEre's a picture of the cabbage fields I'm driving past every day and a picture of the sun through fog I saw while driving.

Whew. Woke up all kinds of kinked. I think I slept with my jaw unhinged. Terrible. Work, I had 3 bichons and a poodle with fancy clips from one client, and a yorkie mix with a shavedown. It took m all day because that guy's four dogs ALWAYS takes me all day. Chelsea left slightly early to go get her younger kid, and I left without running the credit card machine! So I had to turn around and go back. Luckily I wasn't far away, so it really wasn't a big deal.

Home and it's not as cold now. I have leftover lobster ravioli. It wasn't very good at lunch and I'm having it for dinner. Why? I dunno.

I wrote a postcard to Harve, since he's still laid up in ICU with his broken ribs and lacerated kidney. I hope he gets better. He's a big tough bullrider though, I'm certain he'll crawl out on his own way before the doctors think he should.

I wrote a little bit last night, going to attempt some more tonight. I'm tired though. Been tired for over a week now, and no end in sight. Maybe I need more vitamens.



What one of my poor outside planted bananas looks like right now. Sad.

IHOP rules.. and here's why...

So I gotta say.. IHOP ROCKS. I'll tell you why later..

I went to the party. Was grand, got to see folks, people were friendly.

Lil Beachie went too, there's a couple pics I have to upload to his twitter(yes, he's been fussing about that, although he was QUITE happy to hit his bunk last night/this morning when we got home). Since the party was sort of short, I went back home, slept in my bed, and went to the Hoggetown fair setup this morning. It was a lot more convienant to be at home and only have an hour's drive to the fairgrounds.

So.. Hoggetowne fairgrounds we put up all the gigantic tents, went very smoothly. I managed to put in side poles, lay out ropes and poles, sledgehammer in stakes, etc etc. Lots of grunt work, which made me feel like I helped a lot.

Lil Beachie came along for that as well, and helped out. Pics also going up of that.

So after getting the tents all up, and crawling under the tent wall a couple times.. another thing.. I decided to reward myself for all my good deeds(I was social at the party AND helped at Hoggetowne, only yelled at one kid), with a waffle. Cause I love waffles. I've had a waffle iron before, but I have no waffle-waaaaa. .. cannot make them. It's okay, I can eat them.

So Lil Beachie and I went to the Clock resturant(greasy spoon) for a waffle. We were seated, and the waitress asked what I wanted to drink.. then snatched the 'extra' paper placemat almost from under Beachie's feet. I overlooked that.

After 15 full minutes, my soda hadn't arrived, and my order hadn't been taken.. despite the fact that there were all of 4 tables taken in the WHOLE DANGED RESTURANT. There were no less than 6 waitresses. No one brought the drink.. no one took the order.. even though I sat in full sight of them. So.. I plopped the menu back onto the front counter and left.

We went to IHOP. We were seated and a waitress came up and took my drink order. She brought it back quickly.. and took my order. She asked if I wanted anything else OTHER than just a waffle. Nope.. just a waffle.

She brings the waffle in a couple minutes. Lovely big waffle. She asked if everything was okay about 3 minutes later on another pass by the table, EVEN THOUGH the place was packed with patrons. PACKED. I told her honestly.. "The waffle is great, but Beachie is a bit annoyed you didn't ask if he wanted to order anything himself."

HERE is why IHOP rocks.

She looks at the tiny action figure who is standing on the far side of the table where a place setting would be. She says TO HIM... "I'm so sorry.. I assumed you were on guard duty."

Yes. So I pointed my fork at him and told him "I told you not to carry that gun into the resturant, that's a legit assumption on her part. He's fine, I'll let him have some of my waffle, he certainly doesn't need steak and eggs this morning." She nods agreeably and leaves again.

She comes back in about 4-5 minutes and asks "Okay.. who gets the check?"

Yes. I said I would pay, since he didn't order. Gave her a $20 bill. She came back with the change and I left it all for her as the biggest tip she'll be likely to see today(percentage wise). Because SHE GORRAM ROCKED.

Lil Beachie agrees, that IHOP is the bomb and we should go back there, despite it being across town for us to drive to.

Also went to Walmart to get a new pen to write letters with, because I've been going through all of mine and they dry up halfway through a letter. I forgot to check the toy department for the Lil Shipwreck, but that's okay, I'll be in town for Hoggetown next sunday, and I can go then, in garb.

Lil Beachie's twitpic page(you don't have to sign in to look at the pics and captions) cause a couple people asked me for the link recently.
http://twitpic. com/photos/ LilBeachie

That's about it, I'm back home, a bit tired, but thinking of a nap.
tayla

Hey! An update!

Well, here I am again... it seems every time I try to post a blog it takes me to something else, an automatic blog attached to a different email? Anyway...

Work is going well. IRS is sucking me dry. I still have to pay last years taxes(that are due before April 15) as well as quarterly payments on the coming year's taxes(2013) while still trying to pay off the massive IRS amount I have from previous screw ups thanks to a asshat who 'did my taxes' but really took my money and threw out the paperwork!

But in general, life is going okay. I'll be attending the 2013 GI Joe Convention in Indianapolis in April. I know you're thinking, "You just said you're paying off the IRS, how could you take time and money for a convention??" But I'm going on someone else's dime. I'm a buying agent for someone else, who is paying my registration and flight tickets. With any luck, I'll end up making a few bucks off the trip.

I'll be taking my latest custom, a female greenshirt Joe, to enter into the custom action figure contest and taking a print of one of my pictures for the artwork catagory.

The pythons are doing so-so. I've lost almost all the major animals in my breeding plans, so I have to catalog and revamp all the plans for breeding and see what's even possible. The rodent breeding colony is doing grand and I don't ever buy feeders at all. I pay about $22 for 50lbs of rodent food for a bit over a week of feed. That's down significantly from over $60 for feeders once a week.

Dogs are okay.

I now have 7 banana plants in the ground, 4 dwarf red, 1 Grand Nain, 1 Double Mahoi and a unknown(probably a Grand nain). I also have 3 bananas in pots. 1 Ice Cream, 1 Cavandish and my cream of the crop, 1 Gros Michal. The freezes have really hit the outdoor bananas hard, but I'm hopeful most will make it. The potted ones have come inside for freezes so they're doing okay.

Writing has been super slow. When I think of how I used to write 5K words a night, I feel like giving up entirely. Now it's like pulling teeth to get anything written and finishing anything is a complete trial.

Now it's getting chilly so I'll go shut up the windows and doors again, perhaps turn on the heater too! Laters!

Well hell.

I'm trying AGAIN to start keeping up the blog. MAYBE I'll be able to keep signing in to post. It's always such a fucking trial. I usually have to jump through all the hoops and reset the password, after I figure out which of the emails or things it wants me to use this time.

AnYWAY.

The boss fired the other groomer right after christmas. The new one starts on wedsday. Suck. I didn't like her to begin with when she came by. Work has been slow to okay, not super busy, not making tons of money. I can pay my bills and I love my job, and I adore my boss. So life isn't bad at all regarding my work situtaion.

In other news, I have a broken tooth that needs to come out. I've put it off through Xmas so I wouldn't risk not being able to make it to work. Now I put it off antoher week hoping that I'll have enough funds to have 3 taken out, rather than taking out the painful one, then needing to go back in a week or two to have the 2 abcessed ones out. Also, I have a complete terror of dentists to begin with.

I painted the CoverGirl figure into her old tan uniform. I forgot to get brown paint for her damn boots though, so I have to go to Hobby Lobby and get red and brown. Red for another figure, brown for her boots. ALso, I broke apart two figures and used the parts to build a Kamakura figure, which I'm painting. The paint job looked factory perfect, until I took it out into strong sunlight, where it looks like shit. Lucky I have to change the color to a more grey-blue and a lighter Army green. So the last coats to change the shade will finish the coating. Hopefully.

The house is still a disaster, although I have made a LOT of progress! The bedroom's display cabinet is completely cleared off, a cloth cover put on it, and the Joe vehicles displayed on top. The bookshelves over it are almost cleared off and reset. I have to decide which books are going where before I can set them up. I'd like to also put my favorite action figures up there, or put them with the vehicles. That'll get done along the way. Still need to find a new bed for back there.

Writing is going along quite well. I'm currantly working on the Rendezvous fic and the male pregnancy story. I finished the crackfic and posted it. Lots has been posted in fact, including the smut fics.

Joined a cool GI Joe site, theterrordrome. Very nice folks there, friendly and mostly G-rated, so it's not like the hiss place with all the vulgar people who just bash everything in the universe. The only positives I've seen there were people praising some custom figures. Otherwise, they bash everything in nasty ways, and so I don't go there anymore, just stay over on TD.

Snakes are breeding, and I'm hoping to get some nice eggs. I just paired up the geckos to see if they'll breed too. Hoping for that to go well also. The monitors skipped this year for eggs it seems. Wilson is being a total ass like always. Moggie is mostly mellowed out and hangs out or eats or sleeps. Typical.

That covers just about everything for now. I'll be updating along the way much more, I hope!

I was just saying that my life has been uneventful lately. Yeah, I should have kept my mouth shut. On my drive home, I was tooling along on 207 at a 'good clip' which translates to about 73 mph. I suddenly spot a poor confused snake in the center of the road. Now.. This is a divided 4 lane highway(2 lanes each direction with a wide median), so it's on the yellow line between the fast and slow lanes. It's gonna die. I mean, there's no way this poor snake will ever make it the rest of the way without help!

It's Super Wolfy to the rescue!! Yes! Faster than some elderly turtles, able to leap to conclusions in a single bound, I jump into action! I pulled over immediately, and grabbed my handy snake hook from behind the truck seat.

What? You don't carry snake capturing equipment in your vehicle as a matter of routine? Tcch tchh. But I digress...

As I'm grabbing my hook and getting out and looking at traffic, part of my astute brain is identifying the snake from the brief glimpse I got as I passed it. I'm pretty certain it's a water snake, non-venomous but feisty, but it could be a water moccasin or even a dark rattler, perhaps a pregnant black racer..

I check traffic, and wave at a oncoming truck to move to the fast lane so I can trot out to capture the snake which hasn't moved. I'm hoping it's not already injured, but certain it seemed lively when I passed it. As I get out into the road I move up carefully, completely aware that it could be a venomous(and ticced off) snake, and I do NOT want to get bitten.

The truck that moved to the fast lane for me passes and I can concentrate on the snake and I immediately realize that this is the VERY rare Northern Tattered Cable. Now, Tattered Cables are fairly common on most roadways, being found throughout the United States anywhere that vehicles travel. But Northern Tattered Cables are not so common and so I was indeed lucky to happen on one, not only in the open road, but in peril so I was able to assist it!

I cursed rather loudly and creatively in order to soothe the Cable as I expertly tailed it and lifted it's length on the snake hook. Moving it carefully across the roadway, I placed it into the ditch where it can live out it's days in happiness and safety.

Note: Although Tattered Cables of all localities are non-venomous, they have been known to draw blood, so careful handling is always advised!! Also, please note that at no point should anyone endanger themselves or other drivers/passengers in cars by 'darting' into traffic to assist any creature. Please be safe when attempting rescues!!

At any rate, I did rather wish I'd gotten a picture of the lovely creature, but I'll have to be content with my memories of such a exciting and successful rescue!

My monday of the week

Since i work tues-sat.. today is my "monday".

Got met in the parking lot of the shop by my neurotic client, who detailed out how she wanted her dog done.. then she repeated it all once she followed me inside. Since she wanted the Standard poodle's topknot shaved off.. with eyebrows left.. and the rest shaved.. I did try gently to dissuede her. She insited, I agreed.

Once I got her shaved down.. her topknot shaved off.. the owner calls.. "Oh about those eyebrows.. I'm not sure.." "TOO LATE!" So she ended up having me remove the eyebrows too when she picked up.. meaning she looked like a pinhead.

Got off work and got my check in the bank, got my mail from the post office, got a new comic, yay!, got a card from my friend.. not that bad.

Stomach is still upset, but it's doing better. Got almost an hour of chores done. Boys weeded the flower beds today. Pics are of the snapdragons and my rose bloom.

Down day

Yep.. really down today. With stress and everything, I've just felt very depressed. So I've been sitting around doing next to nothing useful. I watered the plants outside.. did a load of laundry and baked some bratwurst for dinner.

Otherwise, it was hot and clear and sunny and the dogs have lain around all day too. Gave Groo some scratchings and fiddled around and wrote a few hundred words, talked to a few folks online or texting.

Yawn. Slept in until 11am and still feel like crawling back into bed all day. Even Lil Beachie made himself scarce all day.

So new news

Sorry it's been sooooo long. Not that many folks read this. But I always have the MOST trouble signing in to post a blog here. No idea why.

I've been okay.. although there was a fairly major upheaval and change in my life, and it was sufficiently upsetting to me that I was ill a few days. With any hope, it'll mean my life is less stressful. I can only hope. With no fallout or crazyiness, it will.

No python eggs, but I do have 4 gecko eggs in the incubator. The male AFT gecko died though. The snakes are mostly doing fine.

Groo woke up! Yay for awake tegu lizard. She's starting to get active too. The dogs are all fine.. the cat is doing as well as can be expected.

I recently went to a event and got everyone(nearly) to write notes to Shobin who is over in Kuwait now. Took a group picture too, so hopefully that packet will arrive in a timely manner and he'll like it. Sis is doing much better with her broken legs and finally is back at Benning so I'm hopeful that she'll get back into the OCS program quickly.

And... snapdragons are blooming! Putting a pic of them up here. Lil Beachie has been DARNED busy and there's lots of pictures up on his twitter, so check it out.

Writing has gone okay lately.. since I had the laptop implode from the virus.. then get wiped and redone(thanks to my most awesome brothers!) the writing has gone pretty well. I enjoy it and feel acomplished when I post a chapter up. I also got some really AWESOME artwork commissioned, will post that up too.

With any luck I'll be posting more often here. Shrug.. who knows.. I've said that before!

For shits and giggles

Kind of literally...I have a trio of African FatTail geckos. I just discovered today that one is gravid with what looks like three big eggs in her belly.

I'm very excited, have not previously bred this species. So I'm rushing about to be sure I have everything I need to incubate the eggs once they are laid. I don't, but that's a different story.

I sat back down at the computer, to check on the caresheet info on incubating one more time. Looking over at the cage, I see the gecko lifting it's tail and straining and OMG! IT'S LAYING EGGS!!!!

I grabbed up my camera and tried to take some pics, and watched the strains. I'm yelling and shrieking happily as it pushes out.. a turd. Oh yeah.. that's the MALE gecko, the pregnant female is in the little hide box.

Yes.. if you've never cheered lustily as a gecko took a dump on camera.. you just don't understand me at all.

I laughed so hard that I stopped breathing and turned blue. Once I could gasp in air again.. I started laughing again. OMG. Only in MY life. I just thought someone might get a giggle out of it.

IHOP rules.. and here's why...

So I gotta say.. IHOP ROCKS. I'll tell you why later..

I went to the party. Was grand, got to see folks, people were friendly.

Lil Beachie went too, there's a couple pics I have to upload to his twitter(yes, he's been fussing about that, although he was QUITE happy to hit his bunk last night/this morning when we got home). Since the party was sort of short, I went back home, slept in my bed, and went to the Hoggetown fair setup this morning. It was a lot more convienant to be at home and only have an hour's drive to the fairgrounds.

So.. Hoggetowne fairgrounds we put up all the gigantic tents, went very smoothly. I managed to put in side poles, lay out ropes and poles, sledgehammer in stakes, etc etc. Lots of grunt work, which made me feel like I helped a lot.

Lil Beachie came along for that as well, and helped out. Pics also going up of that.

So after getting the tents all up, and crawling under the tent wall a couple times.. another thing.. I decided to reward myself for all my good deeds(I was social at the party AND helped at Hoggetowne, only yelled at one kid), with a waffle. Cause I love waffles. I've had a waffle iron before, but I have no waffle-waaaaa. .. cannot make them. It's okay, I can eat them.

So Lil Beachie and I went to the Clock resturant(greasy spoon) for a waffle. We were seated, and the waitress asked what I wanted to drink.. then snatched the 'extra' paper placemat almost from under Beachie's feet. I overlooked that.

After 15 full minutes, my soda hadn't arrived, and my order hadn't been taken.. despite the fact that there were all of 4 tables taken in the WHOLE DANGED RESTURANT. There were no less than 6 waitresses. No one brought the drink.. no one took the order.. even though I sat in full sight of them. So.. I plopped the menu back onto the front counter and left.

We went to IHOP. We were seated and a waitress came up and took my drink order. She brought it back quickly.. and took my order. She asked if I wanted anything else OTHER than just a waffle. Nope.. just a waffle.

She brings the waffle in a couple minutes. Lovely big waffle. She asked if everything was okay about 3 minutes later on another pass by the table, EVEN THOUGH the place was packed with patrons. PACKED. I told her honestly.. "The waffle is great, but Beachie is a bit annoyed you didn't ask if he wanted to order anything himself."

HERE is why IHOP rocks.

She looks at the tiny action figure who is standing on the far side of the table where a place setting would be. She says TO HIM... "I'm so sorry.. I assumed you were on guard duty."

Yes. So I pointed my fork at him and told him "I told you not to carry that gun into the resturant, that's a legit assumption on her part. He's fine, I'll let him have some of my waffle, he certainly doesn't need steak and eggs this morning." She nods agreeably and leaves again.

She comes back in about 4-5 minutes and asks "Okay.. who gets the check?"

Yes. I said I would pay, since he didn't order. Gave her a $20 bill. She came back with the change and I left it all for her as the biggest tip she'll be likely to see today(percentage wise). Because SHE GORRAM ROCKED.

Lil Beachie agrees, that IHOP is the bomb and we should go back there, despite it being across town for us to drive to.

Also went to Walmart to get a new pen to write letters with, because I've been going through all of mine and they dry up halfway through a letter. I forgot to check the toy department for the Lil Shipwreck, but that's okay, I'll be in town for Hoggetown next sunday, and I can go then, in garb.

Lil Beachie's twitpic page(you don't have to sign in to look at the pics and captions) cause a couple people asked me for the link recently.
http://twitpic.com/photos/LilBeachie

That's about it, I'm back home, a bit tired, but thinking of a nap.
tayla

Squeeky the Wonder Truck goes to the Mechanic!

So, I had to take Squeeky the wonder truck back to the mechanic. It started to bog down really bad on saturday on the drive home. So I was worried.. oh noooo!!! It's gonna blow up like the stupid Dodge. It's also been getting worse and worse gas milage, from 30 mpg when I parked it, to 25 mpg when I got it back recently, to 15 when I checked it on friday or so.

Made a appointment, becuase my mechanic was busy, and could only look at the truck on wedsday. So I gingerly drove it to work tuesday. I noticed almost to work that my trip odometer says 34. Well.. that's sort of a kick in the head.. because the distance from the house(gas station I filled up at) to work is 64 miles. So.. EITHER... I'd entered a wormhole which spat me out on the road to work, skipping some 30 miles in the process... OR my odometer is fucked up.

After a short debate with Lil Beachie on which answer would be more probable, we decided that the odometer was fucked up. Actually, I thought the wormhole theory was more sound.. but Beachie pointed out that the odometer was NOT moving currantly, which supported HIS theory of it being borked. Since let's face it.. he's usually right.. we're going with his theory.

So.. when I took the truck in this morning, ten minutes early for my appointment, the mechanic's assistant asked me "So what's it actually doing?" I started to explain, at which point his face went all funny and he stopped me and said.. "I'll let HIM talk to you."

The mechanic came out, and I told him what was wrong. The truck WAS bogging down and wouldn't get over 60 mph with the gas pedal floored.. althoug it WAS NOT doing that yesterday. The odometer stopped working yesterday, so the gas milage might actually be okay, although I was convinced it had dropped, BEFORE I noticed the odometer being borked, although the odometer could have been partially going out THEN.. and the odometer is borked.. although the odometer started working this morning too. The truck runs okay usually.. unless you turn the headlights on.. which makes it start to cough, sputter, kick and generally sound like an ashmatic kitten in a smoker. Oh.. and it rocks to the left a lot when I start out of a parking spot, but that's likely just the springs which I borked by loading it with about a ton and a half of gear to drive all the way to mississippi and back a few years ago. And the AC isn't running very well, but that's not exactly a real concern right now.. AND the ignition works without a key.. or it used to before my aunt's mechanic screwed with it, so now you just have to keep a key in it so the tumblers don't get out of position and make it impossible to put a key in it. So leave the key in the ignition at all times.. please. ANd I think that's all.

At this point, his lip had gone up on one side, down on the other, and his head had tilted distinctly to the left. I sort of wondered if he'd had a stroke. He basically said.. "You realize.. NOT one lick of any of that makes ANY sense."

"Welcome to my world dude."

So he ran down the list.. discounted a few things like the ignition, the AC, the springs, and the odometer for now. Those probably have nothing to do with the truck running properly or not. Then he discounted the headlights making it run rough, because "That doesn't make sense at all!! They're on different circuits, it can't happen like that!"

I suggested he do a full tune-up, change out the filters(or clean them as the case might be) and see if that fixed the issue. He decided he would change the fuel filter, reset the computer, and see if that fixed it all. The other mechanic changed out the cam shaft postion sensor(which the computer was saying is still bad) so it SHOULDN'T be an issue, but if the other mechanic didn't reset the computer, we wouldn't know what was wrong right now.

So I waited inside the office, because I'm not allowed back in the garage area. Very soon after I started using this mechanic, there was this BIG sign that went up saying no one is allowed back there.. although I see other clients going back all the time! Shrug. Okay.

While I was in the office, I chatted with the guys who do the oil changes and stuff. They kept getting funny looks on their faces and needing to leave to go outside. If they weren't inside, I wrote a letter to Aubray. They went to the garage, and suddenly MY truck was put in front of the other trucks that were already lined up when I arrived. That was awfully nice of them to put me to the head of the line!

So.. after a real nice chat about how people really should know more about how their brain forms a thought using the organic slush in our skulls.. the guy inside had to go 'somewhere.. other than here... thanks. " and the mechanic came and told me he changed the fuel filter, the check engine light was off, and that he was only charging me $34. He finds me amusing.. I think because he's safely out in the garage I'm barred from entering.. while his poor guys get to deal with me up front. They sometimes suggest I could just go home to wait for a call.. but I find if I wait, things get done MUCH faster. Plus I tell them I'd have to walk home, which usually makes all of them offer to give me a ride.. awfully NICE boys.

So on the way out of the parking lot, the check engine light came back on, but I'm going to see if the engine actually acts up any before I call the mechanic. If it acts up more, I'm going to mention to him that I really think it's being caused by the ninjas, and see if he thinks I should change to salted peanuts as bribes. See, ninjas are usually healthy eaters, and I think that they would prefer the whole unsalted in the shell type of peanut. It's always seemed to be acceptable. BUt perhaps he would know better, being a mechanic.

Anyway.. I'm back home, and I'll let everyone know how Squeeky the Wonder Truck is driving after I go all the way to work and back tomorrow!

Cupcakes!!

Yes, I baked more cupcakes.. this time the ninjas allowed me to get the red velvet mix home, so I made red velvet cupcakes.

First, the mix isn't red! But when you put the wet ingrediants in.. it turns red! Wow! Secondly.. when you have the batter mixed up, it looks JUST like ketchup!

So when you might think.. it looks like ketchup.. and so.. maybe if you bake ketchup.. in a cupcake paper.. it'll also become a cupcake!! You'd be wrong. No matter what Lil Beachie says, ketchup just becomes hot ketchup.. I have photo proof.

So, I have red velvet cupcakes, and a cup of hot ketchup. Lil Beachie still thinks that I just baked it wrong, and that it should really become a cupcake. Sigh.

So there's a pic of them, being guarded properly by Lil Beachie and some of his greenshirts.

No mechanic trip today

The mechanic was too busy to look at the truck today, even though I was prety pitiful, which I'm ashamed of. I hate it when people try that on me at work, but I did it to him anyway. Sigh. Anyway, I'm taking wesday off work to take the truck to him so I get to hope it makes it to work and back tomorrow, then will miss work(and thus pay) on wedsday, because my life sucks.

At home here, I used steel wool on the helmet, looks better. But I might have to use some bond-o on the edging. I got the chin strap in, so now it's complete, just need the paint job(and possibly Bond-o). Then it's putting on the camera and mic, possibly the scale plates(want to be authentic!!).

Also, I have beef roast and taters and onions in the crockpot cooking slowly, and I made mashed potatoes on the stove for lunch. Then I realized I have no butter or cheese to put in the taters, which sucked. Blegh. Ate some for lunch anyway.

Dogs are almost all outside enjoying another day of nice weather, it's just a bit chill inside the house with the windows open. It's nice outside, and so when I sanded the helmet, I did that outside in the front yard.

I did move back to my bedroom, so I slept in my bed again, yay! Next job is to clear out the back bedroom. I'll try to post any progress if I bother to actually do any of it.

Writing is going okay, the characters had a major argument, and now they're sulking at each other. Perfect. LOL.

Once again...

I spent most of today jumping through all the hoops to sign in to here. Sigh.

Anyway.. now that I've forgotten all the stuff I was going to blog about..

The weather was awesome today, warm, sunny, breezy, just great!

The nieghbors tacked up about a dozen no trespass, keep out type signs in their front yard. Some drama going on between diff neighbors. It was grand to see the primate behaviors going on though. I stepped out to get some mop water from the hose, and the boys from across the road made a big fuss of greeting me, making sure to seem as if I was part of an alliance with them. It's pure chimp behavior, and always amusing for me to see myself put into the alpha role in this neighborhood.

I did a small amount of cleaning. I'm probably getting moved back to my bedroom, although I didn't get the bedroom cleaned up like I originally was going to. Oh well.

I've done quite a bit of writing, started a new fic(Road trip!) and am getting down to the last two days of the vacation fic. Ever think about how a game of football would go if there was a ninja playing? Yeah.. now try writing it.

Mood swings are more shallow now. This is good. My annoyance with Moggie and Wilson is less tonight, although they aren't doing as much scraping and all tonight either.

The truck is acting up really badly, and I'm taking it to the mechanic tomorrow. I hope it's not serious, beause I cannot afford anything. I'm tapped out completely. Sigh.

That's all I can think of right now. I got the red velvet cake mix to make cupcakes agian too, so that'll be nummy. Also have a roast to put into the crock pot. Mmmm.

Lil Beachie has had a lot of action this past week. Check his twitter for more.

Not responsible for ruined keyboards.

This is the true story of how my Aunt(my FAVORITE aunt got me to go Kayaking with her and her daughter, in lovely little kayaks.. shaped like plastic bananas. Enjoy.

Why did anyone invent this? As a punishment? As a torture device? I would understand that, but as a way to get from point A to point B? Well, technically, but swimming strapped to a 20 lb anchor would not only be easier, but safer, faster, more fun, and less expensive. As you all may have surmised, I did SURVIVE my day of kayaking with my beloved aunt and cousin. I crawled up the steps to my house using my teeth, as my arms and legs no longer work, however I did survive.

First off, I forgot to set my alarm, got up late, got dressed, put up the critters, and ran out to truck to discover that the arsenal was still in there, so I had to carry all the guns into the house. Then I was in such a hurry I jumped into the truck and almost got out of the driveway before remembering I did not have my cell phone(I had put it on the charger while unloading guns) so I jumped out of the truck to get the cell phone, only to discover I also had forgotten my purse, with my keys to the shop and house. However I was clever enough to have locked my front door. So off to the shop to retrieve my other house key from my assistant. Back to house to get purse, keys, cell phone, and jammin' off on the 2 hour drive to St Augustine. The drive was fairly uneventful, with the exception of saying if you ever ever drive on 9-Mile road, there is a sign that indicates "curve ahead - 20mph". It is a double curve that would send snakes to the chiropractor, and my truck WILL take it at 55mph when I ignore the sign. The sad part being I KNEW the double curve was there, but was running so late and preoccupied that I was dumb.

So I make it intact to aunt's house on the intercoastal waterway, and we jump into the bananas(hey they were even yellow kayaks!!!!). I suddenly realize that MY banana is filling with water!! Ahhh! IT IS GOING DOWN!!!!! At which point my aunt lets me in on the secret. The boat is supposed to have water in it. I told her "no, boats that have water in them are SINKING!!" She laughs, apparently she thinks I am joking. She shows me the basics of how to paddle a kayak which is apparently different from all other boats I have ever paddled, in that kayaks don't really care how you paddle, hold the paddle, or which direction you indicate, it is going whereever there are mudbars to stick into.
So we head off into the wild intercoastal. Then Meg(cousin) discovers she has forgotten her fishing license! She doesn't however want to feel stupid, so she asks me if I remembered to BRING my license. I laugh and say I don't even have one!! Never thought of it, because I thought we were going kayaking, not fishing. Apparently fishing goes with kayaking. So we head off to get my fishing license(foolish me, I was happy for a moment to think, gee guess I can't go after all!!) Nope, we got to go into St Augustine to get one! darn foiled again!) Then we came back(complete with kayaking hats-don't ask) and head back out in the bananas. Once we got going down the lanes of water, that I have no clue where they go so I am lost as any moron in a Louisiana swamp, I thought, hey this boat is possessed!!!! It is going over there, over that way, hey a mud bank!!! Not to say that the scenery wasn't grand! It was such a clear day(darn it) and you could see tall grasses(marsh?) and mudbanks. Occasionally some small bird would fly by at about 200 yards, which my aunt helpfully pointed out to me. Did I mention the fact that we were leaving at nearly low tide? Yeah, you can see the water in front of you, and grassy stuff on either side. That is it, unless you are really into mudbanks. I got fairly excited as we rounded a bend to see a dead piece of tree! Which MY kayak immediately headed right for.
So then I am thinking "ok, this is hard but not too really bad. I can deal with paddling about a bit then I get to go "Wow! That was such fun! Thanks favorite aunt!" " and go home. Ha! Nice try! Then we came out of the winding grassy stuff onto the actual intercoastal waterway, also called 'the place where really big friggin boats go really fast and swamp all people riding in ridiculous little possessed bananas'. So we got halfway and my aunt said 'oh big boat go back!' Go back?? This thing has reverse somewhere? I haven't even found forward yet? Oh fun. Riding swell huge waves in the bananas was kinda fun, if you aren't afraid that you are going to die any moment!(nope, darn it) So we didn't die and we kept paddling(yeah right, we kept padding, translation is they paddled their sleek little bananas effortlessly across glass calm water, while I swiped at the choppy water and cursed at my banana who wanted to go back to the mudflats. Not that I blamed it at that point, *I* wanted to go back to the mudflats too)

So now it becomes apparent to me that my aunt doesn't really exist anymore, she and my cousin have apparently been snatched up by aliens and replaced by these weirdos who think that attempting to paddle INTO the wind(15-20 knots!!!) AGAINST the tide and currant, while being run down by boats(REAL boats with STEERING wheels and MOTORS!!!) is somehow fun. Finally my aunt beachs her banana after we cross the channels to the other side(which is a MUCH better place to be! It has water, grassy stuff and mudflats!! Not at all like the place we just came from!) and I was relieved to finally catch up, do the same, whereupon she asks me if I want a breather?? We are not there yet. We are in fact about 1/4 of the way where she was intending to go. So I honestly answered her with "No of course I don't need a breather, I need a MOTOR!!!" She laughed, I think she thought I was joking. SO onward even more paddling into the wind(still 15-20 knots) and against the tide and currant to even more water, grassy stuff and mudflats, until finally my aunt announces 'almost there, right around the bend is where we are going to go to fish!!' Around the bend I struggle, the end is IN SIGHT!! As I round the bend I come upon the thing which makes it all worth the pain and effort. A mudflat with grassy stuff and water. Hooray!! At this point I love mudflats. Anything but large expanses of open water where the real boats can try to run over us idiots in bananas. So we run into the mudflat that is partly out of water and sorta beach ourselves(well my aunt and cousin do, my banana which up to this point has managed to try to get onto every other mudflat, for some reason has an unexplained aversion to THIS mudflat and refuses to get stuck there until the 4th try). So we then fish for a while, I won't bother describing the fishing. It was not paddling, so I loved it. At that point I would birdwatch, study the ecological marvels of the grassy marshy stuff, or just admire the mudflat we were mired in, anything but paddling.

Then it was time to leave, when I found out, the only thing worse than trying to avoid mudflats, worse than trying to get ONTO a mudflat, is getting OFF the mudflat. You cannot step out of your banana, under no circumstance may you attempt to step ONTO a mudflat. It would be disturbing the environment's delicate balance, not to mention you sink right up to your armpits. And the mud doesn't let go of anything that hits it. Especially shoes. OR people. Even people who are wearing shoes. But especially dumb people who ride in bananas. My aunt helpfully told me the technique for getting off the mudflats, which is way too complex to explain. But she then tried to show me by getting herself off the mudflat that way. She didn't. She and her banana(her very obedient banana!!) sat there mired and stuck. So I tried what she told me, and stayed there too. So I did the alternate thing(which I thought up right then and there too) of scooting back and forth a lot until the boat scootched out of the mud. So my aunt (the expert) did the same thing. Maybe it will become a revered technique of kayakers everywhere and they will call it the Wolfy maneuver!!! Maybe not. I hope not anyway. That would be stupid.

So then we head back through the channels of doom!!!! We made it, after my arms failed entirely, and I was thinking "just leave me here to die ok?"(darn, they didn't), and my banana wanted to go back into the channels. Great, possessed suicidal banana. Then we started fishing in the waterways on the way back, yay!!!!! No paddling at all hardly, just drift along and fish. Then paddle furiously to keep off yet more mudflats. Which my banana has re-developed an affinity for. So then it starts getting dark, and I am asking 'hello? Are we going to stay out?' Whereupon I am informed, we cannot get back in until the tide comes in. Huh? We are stuck out here?? Great. More fascinating mudflats and oooo grassy stuff.

Finally we get back to the ground(Hooray!!!) and attempt to get back out of the bananas while not sinking into the mud or falling out into the water(why? We are all soaked through and muddy! What does it matter now?) Then we have to pull the bananas up and clean them up(washing mud off, apparently the mud might harm the bananas) and then we get to go inside the house, clean up and get clean dry clothes on. My aunt wanted me to go out to eat with them and grab a shower and all there, but I really needed to go ........ away. Far far away. Somewhere where there are no bananas. SO I thanked her profusely, and she asked me when I wanted to go back out. I told her never ever, not in a million years will I want to subject myself to that again. She laughed. I think she thought I was joking. So home again home again. Where I go to bed twitching with exhaustion, with blisters on my hands, and windburn on my face, wearing my cousin's sweatpants, and my uncle's shoes. Cold and sore. Never never ever go kayaking. Wolfy