Miserable Christmas

Let's just put it this way, there would be less stress and a more joyful Christmas if it wasn't for frigging Good Ole Boy Southerners who close in and protect rank. I'm not past the bitterness yet. Fricking 2 weeks before Christmas, a week before Stinky's birthday. May they all rot in hell, and everything bad happen to them. I understand protecting your skin, it's human nature, but again did you have to do it just before Christmas? Did the Silverback have the guts to show up? No he had to stay at home and not chance running across Goof. Do you feel good about yourself? Does it make you feel better as you make the office a pigstyle, so that the admin staff, and housekeeping complain that they don't like you because you have no manners and spit in trash cans and cups in front of everyone? How the hell are you going to do the job better when you failed the last time, and you have no decent business manners? The business manners don't mean anything because these are Good Ole Southern Boys? So the Boss Hoggs understand your need to chew tobacco and spit every 5 min during a meeting? My God no wonder this state is so rinky dinky screwed up.

Wow this is a big project

I went to a quilt class Saturday, and started a new project. It's a strip quilt called Jelly Roll Junction. It's colors are yellows, creams, golds, and light browns. The main strips were taken from two of Moda's collections, Summer Bouquet, and Portugal. This is to be a quilt for my mom. What I didn't realize was how big the finished quilt was to be. 71 3/4 x 88 1/4. A little bit more than a twin blanket. I was able to get most of the blocks done at the class, and I finished the quilt top the next day. I decided to use cotton/polyester batting, instead of all polyester. This does make the quilt sandwich easier to work with. But my problem is that I decided instead of straight stitch in ditch method, I would free hand stipple the quilt. Wow, that's a lot of work. I used my work tables and made an L shape to support the quilt as I worked, but I am finding that my wrists and hands can only do so many minutes of quilting before they hurt. An hour at a time. I am also using Fons & Porter quilting gloves. What are these things? Well they are cotton gloves with some type of gripper dots on the fingers and palms. Think of gardening or work gloves with the grip texture on the palm side. These help me move the quilt sandwich while sewing. I started quilting on Monday, and I'm about 2/3 done. I'm quilting the body right now, and I will also stipple the borders. One of the problems I am dealing with right now, is block placement. Because this quilt was so big, I really couldn't lay the blocks on the carpet and see it without something in the way. I should have worked on the layout in the living room. I used the quilt tags I picked up last month to help me mark which block went where, and not get the rows goofed up. Anyways after I had sewn the blocks and the borders on, I realized I could have placed the blocks better. What I mean by that is that a couple of the blocks have matching prints, I wanted to place the blocks so none of the prints were right next to each other. I then decided I would have to check out Home Depot for a large piece of cork, a 5x5 piece and I would mount it on the wall, and I could just pin the blocks up and be able to stand back and see the placement better. I told Neville's mom my problem. She actually suggested using adhesive Velcro on the wall, and a flannel sheet. This is a great idea. I got some yesterday, and I will try it on the Raggy Flowers quilt next when I'm done with those blocks. Right now that quilt has me beat. I haven't even finished cutting out the flower pieces yet. Let alone traced the leaf and stem pattern on the fusible web yet. B and I went to Joann's on Sunday and she bought me all the thread I needed for the quilts. I hope it's enough thread. I've gone through one spool of invisible thread already for mom's quilt, and started on a second spool. I may have to go back and get more of that. Freehand quilting is hard. You can't go too fast, or too slow, and I realize that the back of the quilt is not going to be as pretty as the front because of my beginner skills.

Oh, on a funny note. I got lost Tuesday. I took the cart to the library, and decided, I want to go to Walmart by cart. I had the map with me, and I sort of remembered the directions Neville's mom gave me. Somehow I ended up in the wrong direction. I was heading north east instead of south west. I told her about it, and she had a good laugh. I went over to her house yesterday, and we took her cart out to lunch. She showed me how to get to Walmart, and when someone else is driving the cart, I am able to notice landmarks much easier. No need to worry about looking for landmarks and avoiding trees when you aren't driving. It would be great if there were more path signs. I had a lot of fun with Neville's mom, and lunch was very good. A nice change for the both of us. I am definitely a cart believer. She really pushed the benefits of using a cart versus car, and I now understand. Asshole says I use the cart more than he does, and it's true. I use it now to go to the grocery store, library, and post office. If I could I would take it in the mornings going to school. The other day, I took it to the dry cleaners. I also happened to take a turn too quickly and Asshole's shirts took a tumble out of the cart. Heh heh. A woman came up on me, and asked if I was alright. Oh sure, just took a turn too quick and hubby's shirts fell out.

Oh speaking of the hubby, his name for now will be Asshole. He's constantly acting like a jerk. I believe his PMS is really bad right now. It's not worth it to get into, but he's really being ridiculous. That's my opinion and he's got his. I will validate his, but he hasn't validated mine, and I think that's wrong, so he can go to hell until otherwise.

Holy smokes my bones really do hurt

We had one heck of a cold front come in and are really cold! Last night around 1am there was a power outage. I'm not sure what happened, but the power was off for maybe an hour? This morning, we watched the news and with the wind chill, Atlanta was registering about 4*F. Yikes! Today, the high will be about 34*F. I had the brains yesterday to wash all the bedding, and decided to refresh the down comforter. So last night before bedtime, I set the dryer on medium for a few minutes and came to bed with a very toasty warm blanket. I had thrown in the regular comforter first, so Goof fell asleep to poly cotton fluff warming his ass. It was a good thing I did that as with the power going out and the outside temps in the high teens that comforter got me all toasty warm. Even my hands and feet which are always cold. If it was feasible, I would get an electric mattress pad. Alas, it's not easy washing one of those every week. It must be hard on Goof. I'm always cold, and he's got extra body fat so he's warm. Arguments about blankets always come up. Stinky has like 4 blankets on his bed, so he's always got a choice. A really cold night he's under the two warmest, otherwise, I've seen him toss one off to grab a lighter one, or roll around in another for extra warmth. One thing is for certain, neither of the males in this house make a neat bed, or enjoy a Martha Stewart type linen setting. Why do I bother buying sheet sets? They always toss off the flat sheet. Even pinning them on the blankets is a waste and damage may occur. Seriously, a made bed gets thrown around and jacked up every chance.

Goof pissed me off this morning as he decided to have a fit because he couldn't find his belt. Well gee, perhaps if you stop throwing your pants around in every room, you could find them. I seriously can't stand the lack of effort on their part. I wash and fold your clothes, it should be your responsibility to put it away. If I put the clothes away, I get complaints that Goof can't find his clothes. I don't wash clothes he can't find anything, I wash and then get blamed again for him not finding anything. Men irritate me. If it's not one thing it's another. I wanna wring his neck. So I now get to put all his clothes away again, let's hope he can pull his ass out of his head and find the stuff.

Which sex is frailer?

Goof says he never complains about being ill. I can't say I agree with him on that. It seems like he has the same amount of complaints that I do. Headaches, definitely more mild colds, and general irritability. Men and women inherently have different disease states. Men are predisposed from birth to have heart attacks. Women born to be bitches with gynecological issues.

Two weeks ago he gave me a scare. I had come home a bit earlier than I planned from the National. It was Sunday, the oval racing was done and it was agility going on. Well, I was pretty tired and came come early. I came home to a husband that walked in the garage and felt dizzy. He had some chest pains. Stinky had been called home not more than 5 mins before I pulled up. After several doses of aspirin, and relaxation techniques, he got over his panic and we got an appt for him with his doctor. By the way he really likes his doctor. Thank goodness.

The doctor ran some tests, and blood work. His blood pressure was elevated. His cholesterol, wow. Triglycerides are not supposed to be that high. Too much fat in his lunches. So the doctor put him on a two week supply of blood pressure med. He went back a week later for a follow up, and he's got an appt for a stress test. Now here is where I wanted to thump him. He told me his follow up went well, the doctor and he believe his blood pressure is elevated because of work stress. Yea, I would be too, if I had what he's got going on there. The blood pressure med seemed to be working, so a prescription was written, and to be on the safe side, the doctor had scheduled a stress test.

Since he had another week's worth of sample meds, Goof didn't bother to give me the script until I reminded him of it this weekend. He gave me the script, the order for the stress test and a bag filled with samples of another med. I knew what it was and asked him about it.
He said, 'oh that's my blood pressure med.'
Me-'Hell no it isn't. It's a cholesterol med!'
He-'Oh, yea. I'm supposed to take that.'
Me-'Do you know what the dosage is?'
He-'No, but you know'
Me-'Do you know that some patients take this twice a day?'-Giving him the stink eye
He-giving me the stink eye smiling, 'I don't remember, I figure you would tell me'

I wanted to throw something at him. I am not a doctor, there are too many ways a person can take this type of med. Instead, I pull up the calendar on the lappy, see when his next appt is, and count how many blister packs are there. I am assuming it's one a day, based on when he last saw his doctor, the amount given, and when his next appt is not factoring in the stress test. He is so seriously going to give me a heart attack worrying about him.

So we are eating the same, he's just not eating as much, and increasing his exercise. Sweets are still one batch every other week at most, the cake is half gone. The macarons are gone, halloween candy is almost gone, there will be no sweets again until after Thanksgiving. Which bums me out, but I can deal.

I hate men

Yea, I'm feeling crummy. Well inconvenienced anyways. They are not worth the trouble some days.

So Stinky had his first day at school and he was happy. I was not. Seems he found the a la carte bar. $9 for lunch? Ya wanna know what it consisted of? An individual pan pizza, cupcake, BIG cookie, and HUGE pile of french fries. That's his accounting. So where was the milk? He couldn't find it. Where was the veggies? "Does pizza count?" NO! So he's been told no more, don't care if there is pizza there. You plan for the kids to have a healthy lunch, and they go and chose the wrong things. What the heck?

Two weeks ago, we had gone out to dinner, nothing fancy last minute thing, on the way there listening to the radio we heard a song, that Stinky never heard before, but he liked it so much he was singing along with it. So back home we go, and found out the name and downloaded it. He's been singing it since. Well that song and a few others from guitar hero. He even bookmarked the You Tube videos to watch.



Another song he's been singing is Kansas- Carry on wayward son. He seems quite enamored with the footage. Granted he felt the guy with the big hair was scary. Well as I reminded him that was when Egg was born, hippies and all that.



Those are just two of his songs of the moment. Another one happens to be Trogdar. WTF? Boys are strange. They get annoying like adult men.

Speaking of annoying. Fred is not in any of Stinky's classes this quarter. Let's hope it continues through the rest of the school year. Stinky overheard a couple of classmates mentioning Fred. It seems Fred was just as obnoxious at his old school as he was this last year. The sympathy card really worked for him also the fact that the teacher has a wet spot for his aunt. Of course I'm not above being petty against someone that hurt my son. So I was watching out for Stinky at the door, and I saw Fred about 5 feet behind, I run out the door, yelling, "I missed you! I had you all summer, and I wanted to make lunch and you weren't there to share it with me!" Grabbed Stinky and gave him a big hug. Yea I know, that does not make the jealous shit behave better. Too bad, but Stinky is my kid, I gotta make him feel like the sun rises out of his ass.

Long day

Okay Goof sucks. I swear men have pms. It occurs every 3 months and they just have one hell of a snit for any little thing. So, me being me. I get mad at him pointing out all my little faults, then if I respond back and point out his faults, he accuses me of pulling out thngs from the past. Huh? WTF are you doing? So this will be my new attitude about it all. Whatever he says is fine, he's right. He's gotta be right about something I guess. And all bets are off on not smoking. Yea, yea bad me. As he says, "It's your 16 year old self, holding that middle finger up, rebelling at everything." Fine, it's my almost 35 year old self, holding my middle finger up at you, letting your tirade go in one ear and out the other.

Marriage is hard. It takes a lot of work on both parts. I understand his point of view, but damn it I want my point of view to be taken seriously also. So, I leave it at that.

I am in an irritated mood also, because I'm sneezing. Hell if I know why. I've been sneezing on and off for the last 2 hours. It's not just one sneeze every so often, but at least 5 in a row. Am I the only one that gets annoyed at myself for sneezing? I hate it, it takes my concentration away from something I'm doing, driving, cooking, cutting up stuff.

I wanna know why Lucy always manages to get peed on. Or if Mingy is doing it for the fun of it all. She will be doing her stuff and he walks up and decides this is a good spot, and gets her. Or she will walk right in his aim. What is up with that? More baths for her I guess she likes it. Weird little dog.