Pet Peeve #19

Ok, the picture might be a little fuzzy, but make no mistake.....I am the turtle. Here's the situation: when I leave work every day, I have to drive about 1/2 mile before coming to a rotary. If you don't know what a rotary is, you are definitely missing out; it's quite an exciting bit of driving. Anyway, if there is no traffic, it takes approx. 1 minute to get from work to the rotary. However, when leaving at 5pm, you are competing with departing employees from quite a number of companies. About 1/2 way to the rotary, there is a small industrial park on the left, then about 25 feet before the rotary there is a large company on the right. Now, we all know the rule about letting people out into your lane of traffic, right? I mean, one of us, one of you, one of us, one of you....it's simple people! If everyone would just do this, we would have no problem. Of course this isn't the case so many nights when I leave work, the line of traffic is so bad, it takes 15-20 minutes just to go the short distance! Now when I have been waiting in traffic for 15-20 minutes and just as I'm getting up to the rotary, someone from that large company tries to get out in front of me....sorry, Buster, ain't gonna happen! Why should I have to wait so long, but you just get right out? Wait your turn! To my horror (and yes, I know it sounds like a road-rage lunatic, but I was horrified!) one night I managed to leave a minute early and got up to that large company and the car in front of me stopped to let out a car. At first I was like, OK, we didn't have much traffic to get here so what's waiting for one car to come out, right? Then my blood started to boil as this car decided to be Joe Generosity and let out every car that was waiting from that company!!! It was at least 10 or more cars! I can't repeat all the expletives I was screaming in my head.
Now just last night I was behind a Joe Generosity Jr. We got up to that industrial park on the left - and usually there aren't many people coming out of there - but the guy in front of me decided to let a car go in front of him, then another and another! So of course he filled my quota and I didn't let anyone go. Who do these people think they are? How do they know I don't have to get to daycare before 530p or I'm going to be paying 5$ for every minute I'm late? Do they think of these things? No, they just think of their lousy life and how if they just wait and let another car go in front of them, it will be one less minute spent in their dingy apartment watching TV from the worn recliner with the grease mark where their head has touched one too many times.

How Low Can You Go?

This is our dog, Sasha. Every since she was a puppy, we have noticed something unusual about her tongue...

It is freakish-ly long. I mean look at it! She is sound asleep and Bethany started pulling it out of her mouth...because she can't ever fit the whole thing in her mouth...she sleeps with a bit of it sticking out...almost like a little pull-tab! You just can't help but tug on it!

But when you lean down to pet her, and you think you are out of licking range....you better watch out..she'll get you every time!

For A Good Read...

I just read "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks. A friend said she thought all of his books are kind of similar...I haven't read enough of his books to make this claim...however I can say this book definitely gives you something to think about. I really enjoyed it and felt it was an easy read....and it's not very long....give it whirl!

My Apologies....I Had A Case Of BloggusBreakusMaximus

In other words I just couldn't sit down to write for the last week...it happens sometimes - I hope you can forgive me! I will re-tell part of a conversation I had with my friend the other day. I told her sometimes I have so much I want to say, when I sit down to write, I feel overwhelmed because I just don't know where to begin. Many times I have this hysterical conversation with myself over some mundane topic while I'm out driving in my car or at the store...when I get home, it either isn't as funny as I remembered it, or I can't remember it exactly how I originally discussed it and then I think, "Ok, the more disturbing fact is that you are having these conversations with yourself....and you think they are funny!". I'm not kidding, it happens all the time.

Lazy Bones

There has been a lot that I've wanted to comment on so wake up people, I'm going to be jumping around a bit here.

Let me start with a tribute to my oldest genius, Jamie. She is 12. She does not like to have to put physical effort into anything. She is proud of her crafty level of laziness. She is an A honors student, so how can we complain, right? She will deliberately put mental effort into how she can get out of physical effort...sometimes she is so good at it, it scares me..... Her clothes just pile up on the floor and under the bed; we will ask her to pick it up but it will sit there until I get mad I make her get down on the floor with me as I use a grabber to pull everything out from under the bed - all the while she is excited that I have found clothes that had magically "disappeared" weeks ago: "Oh I love that shirt! I was wondering where it was!" Then I realize she managed to get me to clean out under her bed. The other day she said something to me and I told her it should be her mantra. She said, "I like things near me so I don't have to move much". I just sat there in disbelief...

Feel Good Gloriana!

Here is a great song/video by Gloriana....enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv3PJ1YSHFs

If the link doesn't work, just search "Gloriana" on You Tube right from my blog and you'll see a few for "Wild At Heart".

Just a fun, feel good song.

Easter 2009 - In The Hot Seat Again!

I'm going to preface this posting by saying the Easter Vigil Mass was beautiful and at times, a bit surreal. I thought it captured the essence of what Easter should be all about. Now that I made nice with our pastor and church community.....we all know Easter is about chocolate and coloring eggs. Lent and Easter Mass is kind of the test we have to go through to see how much chocolate we deserve. The more difficult and longer to endure the mass is, the more we are rewarded....or at least that's how I think it should be. Why is my seat getting warm? Oh well...moving on...after this year's Easter Mass, I feel me and the girls should be rewarded for a long, long time. (Seriously, it's getting really warm all of a sudden). Normally we attend Easter morning mass with about 5 thousand other families, or at least it seems that way. This year, I opted for the Saturday night show...I mean, option...I mean mass. The only reason I did this was because Mike has been away all week due to his step-mother's unexpected passing, and his flight came in Sat night at 1150pm so I did not want to have to get up early the next morning. I know, I know, where's the sacrifice on my part. I do know that you have to get to any Easter or Christmas mass very early if you want to get a parking space close enough not to need a shuttle. This mass was at 7pm so we got there about 20min early. That could be viewed as a mistake in light of the evenings events, but I still think it's worth it not to have to walk for miles to get to your car. What I was not aware of was that the Easter Vigil mass is similar to the Christmas midnight mass in that it lasts a very long time - 2 hours, in fact. The first half of the mass is all in darkness, except for the candles everyone is holding. At the very beginning, it's almost like a concert in that there are no lights and the candles are lit, one by one from neighbor to neighbor, growing brighter and brighter as they are all lit....just as we lit our lighters at the concerts back in the day. It was pretty cool, except that we had a family with two "spirited" young boys (read young boys with parents who felt no need to discipline them in church...or gave up after speaking to them twice). One of which was right in front of Bethany. He kept jumping around and we nearly had a Michael Jackson incident with his hair. There were little plastic cups on the candles to catch the dripping wax, however I noticed a few people holding the candles at an angle and melting their plastic cups as well.

Anyone who attends Catholic mass regularly knows that every mass has 2 readings and then the Gospel reading. I knew I was in trouble when there was a 3rd, then a 4th reading and still no Gospel reading! I looked at my cell phone clock and 1 hr 15min had passed! And we still weren't at the Gospel reading! I have to say my girls were really good, they asked when it would end a few times, but they didn't get whine-y. There were 5 readings before the Gospel reading. By the time we got to the snack, I mean communion, I was sure we would be rewarded with a few, if not a handful! I really think we earned it.

Another feature of this mass was many of the parts of mass were sung by the priest and deacon...and I don't mean sung as in "The Saints Will Go Marching In"...I mean as in Gregorian chant type stuff. And sometimes we were meant to respond in chant....but no one knew how so everyone was singing it different ways...

By the time the mass was almost over, Bethany was fed up with the boys in front of her - she couldn't understand why they wouldn't just behave. I was like, "Are you kidding? You are looking in a mirror, girlfriend!" After mass was over I had to wait around for my parents, which meant I got to see a lot of people...this is when I found out I missed the best part of the mass! Apparently the Serial Breast Feeder is back and I missed it! She was there, live and in action, and I missed the whole thing!

I have let my peeps down....ok, I really think something is wrong with the heater....

15 Minutes Of Fame....

In case you don't know who this is, this is a photo of Carrie Underwood. She is a country singer. In case you didn't know, I like country music. I like Carrie Underwood. I bet you think I'm going to tell you I got to meet her and that she is really cool and down to earth and gave me her autograph while I smiled like a little kid on Christmas....well I'm not. But I did win her newest CD on the radio this afternoon! I know, quite a let down....but I was on the radio! There have been plenty of times I have called and never get through, plenty of times I didn't call because I figured I wouldn't get through. I always envision myself screwing up the station numbers or call letters...ya know you always here the DJ ask the winner something like, "Who gives away more free music every weekend?!" and I always feared I would forget who I was talking to, but I'm happy to say I knew and said it without making a fool of myself. It was WKLB 102.5 just in case anyone out there was listening around 530pm today and heard me. I was all by myself, too, I had no one to be excited about it with afterwards. But I was on the radio!

Garden Pest Control Continued....

I realize my last post had dragonflies and lady bugs in the title, but nothing in the actual post about them. I was having some technical difficulties...my apologies.

Now to continue Garden Pest Control 101...hopefully you all know me well enough by now to know I HAVE NO GARDENING EXPERIENCE so you might not want to do what I do...capice? Anyhoo...pictured above is a dragonfly. Some are afraid of these bugs...I think because they think they can sting you...which I'm pretty sure they can't (AGAIN, NOT AN EXPERT HERE)...only because I love having them land on me in the summer...they will actually do this quite easily if you hold out/up your arm with your hand extended...almost like a little landing pad for them. They are so delicate and come in all kinds of cool colors...I get so sad when I see one in the pool filter. However, these wonderful creatures eat TONS of mosquitoes so they are great to have around. Here where I live, they seem to come in waves. Some summers we have tons of them, and some seasons we have hardly any at all. When they are around, at dusk on a nice day you can look up about the level of the roof of our house, and you'll see a bunch of them darting around eating mosquitoes. They look nice in the garden too, but mostly they're great to help with the mosquitoes. Supposedly you can purchase the nymphs through the mail...as well as lady bugs. Lady bugs eat aphids (where were they last year when I needed them to save my rose bush!) and other garden pests (read: I have no idea what else they eat) and are cute, of course! We get them here right about now, in the Spring, and then don't really see much of them the rest of the year...so I guess I will have to mail order some for the summer! Any other helpful animals or insects I should have around the Letendre Family Farm? Just let me know!

Lady Bugs, Dragonflies and Guinea Hens...Oh My!

Aren't these little guys cute? These are going to be my new pest control method in the growing Letendre Family Farm. OK, so after hearing from my friend, Sue, on how easy it was for her to grow lettuce, I decided to add some romaine to our "little" garden this summer. Then I started thinking about bugs that might destroy all our "straight-from-the-garden-fresh-taste-dreams"...I mean I remember last summer when aphids marched all over my beautiful rose bush and turned anything green to brown and full of holes. So I remembered reading some different articles about using animals as a pest control method. Pictured above are guinea hens....these little beauties eat ticks, mosquitoes and other garden pests, as well as weed seeds. Sounds like a dream addition to any garden...and I'm sure they look cute running around in my yard....hopefully the dogs don't think "snack" when they see them! This will be a test to see how often Mike reads my blog...I'm sure as soon as he reads this I'll be hearing him "No way! No more pets!", to which I will respond, "They're not pets, they are a "green" (I will make ghost quotes with my fingers when talking to him) pest control method and will keep the dogs and kids free of ticks as well as mosquitoes away from the pool area"...who knows if all that is true, but it sounds good!

Hope Springs Eternal.....

I hope everyone had a fun-filled April Fool's Day...no Tom-foolery here, though. I tried to think of something to post that would be a real "gotcha!"...something like, "Sorry, people, I will no longer be blogging"...but I was too afraid I would get a lot of dead air space as a response! I enjoyed watching some co-workers pulling little pranks on each other, and Bethany, my 8 year old, kept "falling down" and then calling for me as if she was hurt, only to roll over in hysterical laughter when I came running to tend to her.
Spring is here and the weather seems to be ready to follow...we had a nice storm roll through here on Friday with downpours, lightning and thunder. I don't particularly care for all the rain that typically accompanies our New England Spring; I do, however, love this season for all that it promises. For those Christians out there, Spring usually means Lent and Easter...for some this means a time of re-birth, renewing your faith...for others this means chocolate Easter eggs and hot-cross buns! For me it also means everything begins to grow again - my Jonquils and crocuses are all in bloom, my rose bushes are starting to show the signs of buds coming. (notice these are all plants that do not need a whole lot of work....I kind of just get to enjoy them each year). We have tried to plant flowers that will come back year after year, although last year we tried our hands at planting annuals. I have to say, I really enjoyed them. Nothing major, not a huge garden or anything, but you may remember that Big Fat Froggy made his home in our little flower garden all summer. So I had this brilliant idea since we are on a tight budget, that maybe we could actually grow some veggies this year as well and save money at the same time! You can stop laughing now...I understand this may sound funny..I can't even cook so why would I think I could actually grow food...but I'm serious. Serious enough that I did a little (and I mean very little) research online, we bought a bunch of seeds and we are going to give it a shot. Most of the seeds can be planted right outside once the chance of a hard freeze has passed (probably early May), but the peppers needed to be started indoors. No problem. I had actually bought a bunch of starter stuff at the end of last season as I thought it would be great to harvest seeds from last years marigolds and pansies and grow them for this year. Whoa....back up the bus...I can see all your eyes rolling in unison...I agree it's quite ambitious for someone who claims to never have time for anything...but I've been on this "going green" and "living off the land" kick...so why not? I know, I am quite skeptical myself...especially after almost all the marigold seedlings got this white, fuzzy mold on them and died. But the peppers are giving me hope:

Look at these little beauties! I'm so proud...of course I can't remember which ones are green peppers and which ones are red, and who knows if they'll ever survive long enough to make it into the ground...but it's Spring, and I'm hopeful!
I read an article about a family who moved from Florida to a cabin in Vermont to live off the land and the article was about how they had no experience with chickens but decided to buy about 40 chickens and they now have all the fresh eggs they could ever want. How cool would that be? I said to Bethany, "what do you think about raising chickens in the back yard?"...I thought she was going to spontaneously combust right there - she was so excited and of course she would get up at 5am to feed them and it will be really great. I thought it would be great too, and then I remembered we're not independently wealthy and there would be no staff to look after the chickens if we go camping for a weekend, and no staff to clean the chicken area....and we all know who would get stuck with that job. So I almost felt bad telling Bethany we would not be raising chickens...this didn't stop her from telling Mike we were going to raise chickens...at which point he turned directly to the only one who could have put this idea in his daughters head...and asked me if I was crazy. It could be fun....