These early morning pictures make me wish I was with Cosme and Eric on their road trip. I'd find plenty of things to fill up card space with in San Antonio. Oh well, that's the price I pay for living in a zoo.
On the bright side, the animals are fed, the litter box is clean and nobody's complaining... except for Archer who's found something in the back to bark about. What else is new?
day. I claimed the front room for my hobbies a while back and since I'm always a tad colder than everyone else, I keep a little heater in here. Anyway, I was on the computer and Eric walked past, making me turn around. That's when we noticed that Strat was apparently feeling the chill too.
birds with one stone today. Literally. Just kidding. Not only do I have terrible aim, there never has been much power behind one of my throws. Not that I'd throw a stone to kill birds anyway... unless I was in a horrible situation and needed them to survive. And in that case, I'd only do it if I had a fire to cook them on, which I probably couldn't do that either. Lesson here? I shouldn't put myself in a situation where my life depends on any sort of survival skills.
But really though, what I'm getting at is the photo challenge today turned into an Imperfect366 so I'm posting it here.
on the backstory here. Years ago I was a miserable county employee. After working there for several years, I got a dry patch of skin on the top of my foot that itched like crazy. I tried every ointment I came across. I went to a dermatologist and that was a waste of time money. (I can't call it a waste of time because it got me out of several hours of work.) Everyone I talked to said it resembled psoriasis. I researched it and that's definitely what it sounded like. During this time I also started having stomach issues. I won't go into to too much detail but it sounded a lot like IBS. I went to a few doctors and started taking acidophilus. That helped some of the issues but there were still others I couldn't fix. Along with these two ailments, I would also get a TON of canker sores. That wasn't too uncommon because I've always gotten those. But, those few years, I got them ALL THE TIME. At one point I had seven in my mouth at once. I also tried everything for those, from gels to old wives tale remedies. I even went so far as to collect cigarette ashes from my friend and pack those on them. It didn't work. A few years after it all started, and a couple of years after I quit my job, everything went away. I'd still get the occasional canker sore and stomach issue but for the most part, everything was good. Although I usually joke and say it's all because I'm allergic to work, I'm pretty sure it was triggered by stress and anxiety.
Lately, it seems like little symptoms have started coming back here and there. This time though, I'm taking a different route. Young Living Essential Oils are my weapon of choice.
On Sunday I woke up with a canker sore and another one coming along. By the end of the day, that second one hurt like a big dog. After doing some researching and putting all my past symptoms together and reading that those all happen to be symptoms of certain things dealing with immune system issues, I first though of Thieves oil. I brushed my teeth before bed with my Thieves toothpaste and guess what. Where canker sores usually stick around for a week or so, mine were practically gone. Seriously. They lasted one day. One day! I also remembered some capsules I bought but never took. So yesterday morning I started on the Inner Defense supplement.
I'm excited to see how all this plays out. I'm also feeling pretty optimistic.
made anything with that Skippy peanut butter. I went to Kroger this morning though, trying to avoid all the rain we were scheduled to have... I was worried because I got a late start and well, here it is right now
It rained for about 10 minutes, 2.5 hours after I got home from my late start.
While I was at Kroger to pick up a few things though, I noticed another one of those sales. Buy 6 and get the sale price. I bought 5 boxes of microwave popcorn so I could get a few cents knocked off a package of frozen breakfast sandwiches. Needless to say, my few items turned into a basket full. That might actually be a good thing because if you'll remember, a few months back I was complaining about how I was stuck in a routine of eating out. Lately, we haven't eaten out a whole lot. Okay, I did pick up Red Lobster last night but only because they have a special right now of grilled shrimp drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with bacon... how could I not pass that up? Oh, there have also been a couple of occasions where eating out was just more convenient but for the most part, I've done a good job at keeping myself in line (and in the kitchen).
While I sit here typing about how well I've done at not eating out, I really should be in there prepping mac and cheese for tonight.
I'm also working on several loads of laundry today. Strat is supervising.
Speaking of Strat, he was in the living room the other day and I decided since licking is the fastest he ever moves, I'd get a little slow motion video of him. Here it is.
Now I'm off to start the mac and cheese. That should go really well with the pork chops I picked up (and maybe even one of the boxes of brownies I picked up to meet that 6 item sale price).
You win, Kroger.
UPDATE: Scratch the first picture. It's raining again. I guess the forecast was right.
been able to get warm today. Well, I got up and started moving and I got a little warm but right now I'm sitting here and I turned the little heater on to help out while I drink my Coke and try not to think about having the munchies. Although, this would be the perfect time to bake something. I could use the oven for a little heat and have sweets while I'm at it.
Every so often Kroger does this whole mix and match thing where you can get good deals when you buy 5 or 10 of certain items. They had one going on last week. I had no plans of getting anything from that list until I went to buy orange juice. It was buy 5, get the sale price. I found my 5 items and before I knew it, I had 9. That's where they get me. At that point, knowing I didn't need more of what I already had, I was left walking up and down aisles trying to find the tenth item. I was getting irritated by the time I saw peanut butter. So I got it.
The only problem? It's Skippy. I bought it with no intentions of eating it plain or on a sandwich. I eat Peter Pan. Sure, I could give Skippy a try but no. I'm not going to. I like Peter Pan. I'm stubborn like that. I had one thing in mind when I bought the (as far as I'm concerned it could be) off brand of peanut butter. COOKIES. Thinking about it though, I just baked a cake the day before yesterday and right now I'm not really in the mood to bake anything. Oh well, I guess I'll just keep sitting here being cold, fighting off the munchies while a full jar of bake-able peanut butter sits in the pantry.
that has a hard time saying no. I remember once Cosme called on his way home from work. The call went something like this
Him: What are you doing?
Me: Two women are here showing me a vacuum cleaner.
Him: What? Do you know them?
Me: No. They knocked on the door.
Him: Are you crazy??? They need to leave.
So then, I was fretting over how to politely tell strangers to get out of my house, without making it sound like Cosme was some uber controlling maniac... which I managed to do anyway. ("My husband isn't happy you're here so you need to leave because he's about to be home.") LOL I know it was stupid but still, I had to say no and that was where I went wrong. (Note: before they left, they did manage to vacuum my living room and offer me a discount on the new Kirby that was so low she had to write it down instead of saying it. I told her that no, $700 was way more than I'd pay for a vacuum cleaner. She asked how much I pay. I told her $79 was a splurge. They didn't stick around much longer.) Anyway, that's one reason I don't answer my door if I'm not expecting anyone. Last week I'd had enough.
And...
I finally took action. I bought a cute sign off Etsy.
I really showed them.
And check this out. The new car takes regular unleaded. (WOOHOO!) I had a bunch of Kroger fuel points after Christmas and I needed to fill up the other day before they expired.
What??? Look at that! I filled up my car for less than $10. That was crazy. The low gas prices might not be the best news for the oil and gas industry but I really liked that little perk my points added.
days where the first thing you read when you wake up is that David Bowie died. It's not like I knew him but it was David Bowie. He's kind of a big deal and who saw that coming? Anyway, David Bowie died. I wasn't going to post a video but I will, just because this is this is one of those songs that every time it comes up in the shuffle, I have to listen to it.
In other news, I was a Powerball loser. I won't let that stop me though. I never buy lotto tickets and I figure I'll give it another shot. Here's the pic I posted for the Imperfect365 group on flicker. Actually, now they're tagging them all Imperfect366 so I really don't know what I'm doing... what else is new.
Now I need to go do today's photo-a-day and think of something sweet to bake.
and made a sandwich and was about to sit down for lunch. I was going to get a Coke but guess what. It didn't sound as good as a glass of tea. I'M SERIOUS. I was a little heartbroken but a little excited. So I went and poured that glass of tea and had my lunch.
No worries. I eventually had my can of Coke. And it was awesome.
This was yesterday. It rained a lot and when it wasn't raining, it was just wet and nasty. I didn't go further than the garage.
And then there were the drops coming off the house.
And then I came in to finish with arts and crafts.
Now I need to go make more tea... for my next fix.
day. A glorious rainy day. Days like this are pretty much awesome. I don't need to be anywhere. I'm caught up on laundry. Yesterday I got most of the Christmas decorations put away, outside stuff included. Chili is cooking for dinner. I'm still due for my Coke. And arts and crafts time has been in full swing.
I started with an idea but it ended up as something else so I just went with it.
Yesterday though, when it was sunnier, I decided to grill. There were definitely two fans of that idea.
Hover much?
Something tells me they don't think this rainy day is so glorious.
of the cats. Cats, cats, cats. Today I decided it was a dog day. The weather is nice, cool and sunny so I went outside with my camera. I should also mention that when I was at Petsmart earlier, I bought a frisbee.
Look what I have, y'all.
They really wanted it
as a chew toy.
Archer usually retrieves whatever is thrown but then he NEVER brings it back. He comes close and pivots for me to chase him. No. I have a secret weapon. Maggie.
I just have to cheer Maggie on to go get it and that usually works. She's much better at handing things over.
I like getting out there and getting pictures of the dogs but... one thing about getting pics of the cats is being able to walk away from the situation with a clean lens.
This was after a swipe of Archer's tongue.
Here are a couple I got of each of them. Archer's black and white went to flickr, fb and instagram.
Maggie always seems to have a smile for the camera.
was looking on Pinterest and saw a couple of things. I think I saw and wrote about the same or similar things last year. Whatever. It's along the same lines of every other daily challenge there is. Write about something, take a picture of something, make something, eat something, clean something, get rid of something... like I said. Whatever. I might try it or combine a few. There's no way I'd do them all. An example: List 10 things that make you really happy. No. First of all, I don't like to open up like that. Second, I'm not going to jinx myself like that. What? Tell the world what makes me happy so it can be taken away? I really love how McDonalds has $1 drinks all day. Why would I want to go and talk about it and how awesome it is? That just sets me up to have it taken away. Is it just me? Am I the only overly paranoid or superstitious person out there? I'll keep it light and not so deep. Example: What is your love language? What does that even mean? I only speak English fluently (and half the time I don't even do that so well). Or is it deeper than that? I love to talk about McDonalds $1 drinks? Again, not jinxing it. Maybe I've got a few issues to work out. Or what about this one: Bullet-point your whole day. Honestly, that's something I don't even want to see. If I did, I'm pretty sure that's what facebook is for.
I did see a kind of interesting one. It's a 30 day song challenge. I'm doing it. Well, I'll do it as best I can. Example: What's your favorite song? (insert eye roll) I'm not nine. My favorite song to what? Clean to? Dance to? Chill to? Drive to? Oh well, I'll try to sum it up but that's not easy because chances are, in 10 minutes I'll have another song on repeat. OH MY GOSH. This is harder than I thought it would be. Fine. I don't have a favorite song. It depends on my mood and what I'm doing.
Who thought of all these daily challenges anyway? No wonder I can't find one worth sticking to.
Forget it. Today they all suck and it's annoying me.
When I was in bed last night looking through all those lists and messing with my camera, I did a selfie. I camera selfie, not a phone selfie. Here it is. I look a little irritated. That's what these lists are doing to me.
And for the record, I wasn't irritated. I was just looking at the camera, thinking of things to do. Now I'm off to wait and see what tomorrow's list challenges bring.
new goals, blah blah blah... I don't understand why the new year brings this out in so many people. Unfortunately, I'm one of them. I don't fall into the whole "new year, I'm losing weight and working out" mode. I end up starting the new year looking for a creative outlet. Kind of like the photo-a-day thing I started a few years ago. I haven't been doing so well with it lately but hey, new year, new start... or something like that. Last year I joined a group on Flickr. I pretty much failed on that one too. As I got hyped up and had to get started with something today, I noticed my last post there was June of last year. That's pretty bad. Anyway, I don't even know if the group is still active anymore but I went ahead and posted a pic.
This is what I posted.
A messy, chocolate-coated whisk, making an even bigger mess on the counter. I added it to Instagram. I mean why not... new year, new pictures. The only thing I am sure of, no matter what outlet I choose, I'm feeling a black and white phase again. Oh well. We'll see how far I get this time.
