Walk On The Wild Side

Every once in a while- on a really good day- everything falls into place and I find myself wanting to take a walk on the wild side of my twenties again.

Yeah, today I'm like uber responsible and I have a steady job and don't drink(much) or smoke(much) or stay out late(okay, well that one I do- do, but I'm at work nights so...) or any of that twenty something stuff(not the FUN stuff anyway)......but there are days now (like tonight) when I wanna just go out and buy a bottle(or three) and a carton of cigarettes, invite a bunch of my friends over, turn the music up REALLY loud and just let my hair down and dance my ass off.

Sue me.
;-)

But, as usual, I just stick my iPod on my head and dance around my living room- or kitchen.
Damn, it sux being a responsible grown-up sometimes.

Happy Birthday Daddy..... & 72 Seconds

This is a pic of my parents on mine & Pauls wedding day.
Today my daddy would have been 80 years old.
I miss my Daddy.
Hugs & Kisses to Heaven.
**************************************
72 seconds......That's how long it took me out of the 90 I was given to make the trip up seven & a half flights of stairs for my yearly endurance test.

All these weeks of training with walking, and jogging and stair climbing at work really paid off. I think I'm gonna keep it all up instead of slacking off again like I've done in the past after the test. I still have quite a few pounds left to lose anyway.

And- as an added bonus- I caught sight of my reflection in the full length mirror they have installed in the Security Lobby- and I liked what I saw.
Not LOVED- but liked.
I'm getting there, one baby step at a time!!!!!

Speaking of- I want to thank my sweet hubby for being my personal trainer these past few weeks- for giving me encouragement when I need it, some kick-ass lectures when I start trying to get lazy, and for not saying anything at all when that's called for too. And I'm asking him to keep it up in the months to come. Thank you, Paul, for standing by my side thru it all.
**************************************

Snakes and Skeeters and Chiggers- OH MY!!!

I was at work the other day and some of us was talking about summer stuff- both good and bad.
I remarked that the two worst things about Summer for me was "Skeeters and Chiggers".

One of my co-workers, who is a northerner and co incidentally one of the sweetest black guys I've ever met, looked up and said "What??".. and so I repeated, "Skeeters and Chiggers"...

He got this really strange look on his face and asked, "Can you repeat that one more time?"......
At that point I realized what he thought I was saying.

I had to explain to him that Skeeters are Southern Slang for Mosquitoes and Chiggers are these tiny little red bugs that live in the overgrown fields on yellow wildflowers and they burrow in beside your hair follicles when you walk against the flowers. They burrow and make you itch so bad that you feel like clawing your skin off, and that itching is them eating their way into your skin.

He and I laughed about it, then and he said being from the cooler north, where they don't have carnivorous bugs, he had never heard of such a thing.

I told him since he lived down here now it was important to know about them and that the only thing I had ever heard of that worked to stop the itching was to make sure you had a bottle of clear nail polish and to cover the entire red spot where the chigger was burrowing with a bit of it. It seals the burrow up and they smother and die....and most importantly, the itching stops.

For Skeeter bites you can do the same thing- but you have to be quick- as soon as they bite you, you need to get the nail polish on the bite in 5 minutes or less -BEFORE YOU SCRATCH-or it doesn't work NEARLY as well.

Snakes......The best thing to do with snakes down here is just to avoid them at all costs. I don't think that the nail polish would help with a snakebite at all. All I can say about them is Brown snakes are generally VERY BAD.....Black snakes are good so don't kill them, they do bite but they just make you a bit queasy- they don't kill you...or if you just absolutely HAVE to kill it- then throw it up in a tree and drape it on a branch. At least then you'll get a good thunderstorm out of it.

Seriously. I'm a Mountain Witch- we KNOW these things. They've been passed down to us for generations.

A Little Bit Of Heaven....

I'm positive that when I get to Heaven, all they are going to serve me to eat is raw chocolate pound cake batter.

It's like a party in your mouth. ( I actually had another saying in mind, but it was just way too adult-oriented to put up here.)

I got the recipe from this Site!

Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe

Preheat oven to 325 degrees


3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in a few drops boiling water.


Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together butter, shortening and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing between additions. Add flour mixture and evaporated milk alternately and mix well.(*The original instructions don't tell exactly how to do this so this is what I do: I add 1/3 flour mixture, one-half of the evap. milk, 1/3 flour mixture, one-half of the evap. milk, 1/3 flour mixture.) Add vanilla & coffee and mix well. Pour batter into a greased and floured** 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 1 hour and 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Dust with confectioners sugar OR ice with your favorite Chocolate Glaze or Frosting.

Lurkers.....

Why do people still "lurk"?

It's seriously CREEPY.

Just post a comment anonymously, for goodness sake. Why are you hiding?

In my opinion, Lurkers are just "Silent" Stalkers.

Happy Sisters Week!!!... & ...Oh Well....Here & There....This & That.

Happy Sisters Week!!!!











*****************************
Well, today I woke up and looked in the mirror at my hair......now it's been growing out for about three years and had some considerable length to it. It also had some major split ends and damage besides the split ends. In short, it looked like a horses tail. It looked BAD. I had sworn I was never getting it cut again, but it really really needed a shape-up and that damage gotten rid of. So I got dressed, went to the hairdressers, and got it trimmed up and deep conditioned. It's about only about two and a half inches shorter than it was- but it looks much shorter to me- just because I worked so hard growing it out for so long. But, the main difference is it looks SOOOOO much healthier now. And for THAT I'm glad. It'll grow back out to full length again soon enough- and maybe this time I can keep it healthy while I'm doing it. Before, I wasn't eating healthily, I wasn't exercising like I should and I wasn't using a decent hair product, either. But now I have it looking healthy again, and I have good habits and a deep leave in conditioner to keep it looking that way!!
**************************

I have my endurance test finally coming up on the 31st of this month. I've about given up on my dedicated walking at work to try and crack that 90 second time limit we have to climb 7 & 1/2 flights of stairs. I've been building up for a month a and a half now- and whittled the time down from an 8 minute climb-(boy was I out of shape!!)- to last nights 2 minute and 5 second climb. Now if I can just completely eliminate that 30 second rest halfway up, I'll have it licked!! Then when I came home- Paul and I had planned to go for another 2 mile walk here- but he was expecting a pkg from Fed Ex to arrive and didn't want to leave the phone because Fed Ex, UPS and lots of times even the mail carrier can't find us to deliver packages because we're so off the main road they have to call us for directions.
And so when I came in, he told me that I didn't have to do our walk this morning if I didn't want to because he wanted to stay near the phone in case FE called needing the directions to deliver.

Now before y'all go getting all huffy about him "telling" me what I can and can't do- I should tell you that he's become my personal trainer for my weight loss. He's my perfect version of a combination of Biggest Loser's Bob and Jillian. He knows better than anyone when I need the compassion and gentle encouragement that Bob gives out, and when I need the hard-charging, in-your-face, I-don't-care-if-you-don't-feel-like-it-get-OFF-your-ASS-and-MOVE, kinda encouragement that Jillian doles out when it's needed.

So back to my point....I got dressed in my workout clothes and went and walked over a mile ANYWAY!!! Well, I say walked, but I walked out to the end of our driveway and then jogged back each time .....and each time out there and back is .25 of a mile!!!
So today I did a 1.7 dedicated walking mile....plus the stair climbing at work last night, plus my regular walking just doing my job. And all this work is paying off!!!
I finally gave in and went out and bought me two new pairs of workout pants last week for around 5 dollars a pair. I didn't WANT to- but I only own one pair of shorts and they were literally falling off me when I walked. They were a size 22. (*hangs head in shame that she let herself get that out of shape*)
My new Capri pants I bought (I'm not brave enough to wear actual regular short-shorts quite yet) are a size 18!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I bought a new pair of longer workout pants in a size 16 and put them in my suitcase for later use. I KNOW I'm tooting my own horn- but I just can't believe that I'm actually doing this- and beginning to enjoy it enough to do it on my own when I have the choice to opt out and take a rest!!!! That is SOOO not me. I'm competitive and will bust my butt to win something if theres more than me involved- but doing it on my own....Thanks but I'd rather not........until recently, that is. What's up with that???
************************************
Work.....I have to say that my job has NOT been the happy place it once was for me. Since a "situation" a few weeks ago, I'm constantly second guessing myself and my decisions at work. I'm going back over things repeatedly just to make sure I've done it properly and in doing so- am creating more work for myself and messing up what was a perfectly good, sound routine. I used to talk with just everyone, and be as easygoing as could be- but now with the exception of a handful of people, I rarely speak more than a general pleasantry before moving along on my tours of the site. I find myself censuring everything I say and do to make sure nothing could be taken out of context, or misconstrued as negative in any way, shape or form. I'm finding it sad to think that one small act and misunderstanding could have led up to this sad state of affairs somewhere I was so happy, content and satisfied before. I hate being this paranoid. Hopefully things will return to normal after a while. I hope so.
***************************************
For me the only good thing about summer is the fact that I can eat lots of fresh veggies and fruits. Yesterday I went to the supermarket and bought a Turkey Breast for us to smoke in the grill this weekend, and a LOAD of fruits and veggies. I bought cantaloupe, watermelon, bananas, corn, cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage and onions.
The only thing I forgot was potatoes, so I suppose it's gonna be a trip there to pick those up sometimes while we're out taking care of business this weekend. Doesn't matter, it'll be another adventure....or MIS-adventure.
****************************************
Paul and I went out and shot our weapons this week. I'm gonna do a LOT more of that later this weekend too. He put a glorified version of part of HIS vid up on his blog, but I asked him to delete my shooting video because 1) the Glock kept jamming- the casing for the bullets kept ejecting improperly and getting caught in the slide action and I said quite a few bad words..... and 2) I still looked fat despite 44 pounds of weight loss....and 3) I had on old raggedy looking clothes that I work around the house in that just accented how badly out of shape I was.
Mainly because of #2......and 3. Y'all already know what a potty mouth I have when I get mad so that wouldn't be a huge surprise to any of you at this point, I don't think.
:-P
*****************************************
I wish it wasn't so dang HOT & Humid outside.......and inside for that matter. I can't sleep in this weather. It gives me a headache to try and do so. Which is why I'm up now writing this blog-post instead of sleeping before I have to go in to work at 5. And why I'm gonna REGRET it tomorrow morning when I have to stay awake to go to a training class @ 8AM after working a 12 hour shift tonight from 6P-6A tomorrow morning after being awake since noon today and only getting 4 hours sleep this morning as well.
I am such an idiot, sometimes!!!!

SO Much Better.....

Well, I slept like a stone last night, and today my ears haven't bothered me a BIT!!! Hopefully the prescriptions I got at the doctors office will do the trick. The NP there seemd to think maybe it was allergies instead of an ear infection like I thought it might be.
Maybe she wasn't quite as dang dingy as she appeared to be.
She still freaked me out tho.
The tablets she prescribed for me.....OMeffingGosh.........I definitely need to take THOSE little babies before going to bed...I had put the ointment in my ears and taken one of the tablets when we first came in from the doctors visit-(I was DESPERATE for some kind of relief from the itching and since it was after 6PM I figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and take it then since I didn't have to work last night...just to see how they worked on my body...). So anyway, I went out to sit with Paul while he was grilling the ribs and not 10 minutes later I was falling asleep in the chair. I don't remember coming inside and falling asleep on the sofa- but that's where I woke up when the food was ready so I must have come in at some point....I also vaguely remember making ranch potatoes to go with the ribs.
Just for the record- the ribs he made was AWESOME!!!!! I'm glad he didn't drown them in BBQ sauce- the rub was good- but I like the home-made ones we put together better. However, we just didn't have all the spices we needed to put one of them together and I didn't wanna buy more spices when we're trying desperately to use up a lot of our pantry supplies before we go on our trip. Maybe those spices are something we COULD buy more of tho since we seem to be enjoying the heck out of that smoker/grill we bought before all this other stuff came up.
I haven't talked about our upcoming trip much on here, but I'm really looking forward to it. More on that later tho. I don't wanna jinx anything!!!! And sometimes the less I talk, the better things turn out. I should take THAT advice more often!!! Hahahahahaha!!!
Anyway, as I said- I slept like a stone last night and feel so much better this morning. And that's SUCH a RELIEF!!!!!!!

Hopefully For The LAST Time!!!

(Apologies to the person this pic belongs to on the net- but it just fit the image of the NP I had today....only she wasn't trying to be funny on purpose!!!)

Okay, so today I had to go to my doctors office for an ear problem that's been going on for a couple months now. I've used every home and common sense remedy I can think of, beg, borrow or steal from family and friends, and the problem still won't go away.
So, after the past several days , my eye has started twitching.....I know that's a nervous tick, but with my ear problems I didn't wanna take any chances of it being related to my ear problem and the possibility that it was an infection that was spreading....I learned my lesson with that Kidney Infection a couple years ago.......
Well, I went in there- and of course they had to work me in- Mondays are a BIG day for my Doctors office, it seems.... so I went and sat til they had an opening and could check me out.

Well, Lucky Me- I got to see the Nurse Practitioner....... and let me just say that had I not been going so damn absolutely insane with itchy and burning in my INNER EAR- I would have walked out halfway thru the visit. OMG- The woman couldn't put three sentences together in a row without having to hem and haw...... she kept asking me questions she had already asked..... she couldn't type in the computer and talk.......... she was just so damn spacey I was almost scared to fill the prescriptions she gave me because she wasn't sure about ANYTHING. I got better (or at least more positive and confident) advice from my friends and family who had already given me their remedies!!!!
I have NEVER, in my entire LIFE come away from a doctors visit with a more insecure feeling about a doctors diagnosis.

On the upside, hopefully that will be the LAST visit I ever have to make to that office before our trip. And if by some strange accident I DO have to go back there- I'm damn sure requesting Dr. Repik or Dr. Welborn. I will NEVER EVER see that NP again!!!

Jeebus Crisp, that was one scary event!

Already???

Dang, it's HUMID!!!
I mean it's not even officially SUMMER yet and it's already this humid???? I can hardly breathe when I step outside with the sun shining. Paul and I walked yesterday evening- after the sun had went behind the trees- but not quite dark yet- I think that's what most people call Dusk.

I can't wait til the end of Summer........or the beginning of Autumn.
Best Time Of Year EVER!!!!

Huh????? Whaaaaaaa????? Day-uuuuuuuuum!!!!

Well, it seems I have had a minor miracle when it comes to weight loss.

I got the scale out this morning and weighed............According to our new digital scale- I weigh 101.8 lbs.
That's over a hundred and 120 pounds lost in a little under a month!!

:-O

I tell ya- that extra walking and taking the stairs at work must REALLY WORK FAST!!!!

I can't say much for the inches tho....I can see some inches gone- but seems to me 120 pounds of fat should have taken up MUCH more space than seems to have gone missing from my body.

Disappointing. Just a bit.

What HE Said.....

Couldn't have told it better myself.....so, being lazy today, here it is-

What Paulius Said........

I Don't Need That- Especially From My Own AVATAR!!!!

Know what's really annoying?
An avatar that mocks you....sarcastically.
So I have my little Nike+ Avatar all dressed in black running pants and a red sports bra, a black hat and black and white running shoes. Her eyes are blue and she's wearing glasses/shades like me, and her hair is blond- like mine and it's pulled back in a pony-tail - like mine is when I go on my walks. Only difference is that I'm usually in a uniform when I do my walking and she's able to dress in comfortable clothes. (A fact I'm seriously jealous about...sad isn't it?)
Well, the little avatar is animated and your level of activity in real life while you're tracking with the iPod chip decides what level of activity your avatar shows on the site.

Well, due to some things we had happen and things we needed to take care of this past week- I either haven't been able to walk much and what little activity I HAVE been doing isn't recording on the site. (Something I have GOT to fix).

And my lil' Nike Mini-Me is Mocking me. I went on there to see if I could figure out why it wasn't recording my activity info and there she was...sitting on her butt playing a video game on the curbside. Two minutes later I looked- and she was standing there , nonchalantly playing with a paddle ball. Five minutes later, she's yawning and stretching, seeming to look off in the distant sky for....Oh I don't know....maybe a BUTTERFLY?????

I gotta get that activity level back up. I mean I gotta figure out HOW to fit that little chip in my WORK shoe and it actually WORK and RECORD my stuff.
Tried one of the "quick fixes" for it I found on the internet- securing it in my shoelaces. Out of the average 6-9 miles a night I recorded last month at work.....same thing I do every night at work.......last night in the laces- it recorded it as .67 miles. Not 67 miles....POINT 67 of a mile.
And that just SUX!!!!!!

I get NO respect I tell you.
NONE.

Holy Cow!!! It Doesn't Happen Often, So I Had To Brag On Them!!!

Okay- that was just dang scary.

Paul and I went and got a couple pics made today and then went to the local body shop to get an estimate for getting my car fixed. We went in and after a few minutes wait- the guy came out and surveyed the damages, listing what was needed. About 10 minutes later we came out the door, estimate in hand.
We came home- got the fax number and headed down to the nearest business that has fax services available to the public. The lady put it in the fax....and we waited.....and waited....and waited.....and waited some more. But it wouldn't send. So I called the insurance claims adjuster and double checked I had the number was right-I did- and that their fax machine wasn't broken- it wasn't...so we tried again. And still nothing.
Eventually, we gave up and just decided to bring it to the office ourselves since we weren't that far away. So we called them up and got directions to the office and took it over there. It was a short 15 minute ride that we enjoyed thoroughly.
Once we got there, I handed the papers to the receptionist and told her it was an estimate for Daniel- and could she please make me a copy of it. She said "Sure!!" and she bopped away to the back. Two minutes later- she was back, copy in hand, handed it to us and said, "Daniel will be right with you."
I kinda looked at Paul, because we only stopped to drop the papers off, thinking "Oh crap-this is where he (Daniel) looks over the estimate and comes out and says- "I'm sorry, Mrs. Malone- we have to reject this claim due to.....(insert random BS here).' " That's typically how it goes with the insurance companies I have had dealings with in the past........BUT-
In actuality, we sat there-or in Paul's case paced-for about 10 minutes and then "Daniel" came out and handed the receptionist an envelope and she came to the door and handed it to us, smiling, and said, "Y'all have a great day!!"
Paul and I opened the envelope and it held a check for the full amount of the estimate.
No rejections, No questions, No BS.
Just "Thank You and Have A Nice Day."....

Now THAT'S Service with a SMILE!!!
Take Heed people- that's how it SHOULD be done!!!

I'm sitting here now, tho, thinking "Okay- when am I gonna wake up and this all be a freaking DREAM?????????"
Things NEVER go this smoothly for us.
But I'm glad it did this time!!!!

Errands....& More Errands!!!!!

Heading out in a few minutes to get photos made........... and get an estimate on the damage done to my car in the parking lot incident a couple weeks ago.

Busy little bees- us!!!!

This & That

This....
Yeah, this week is moving right along.
Got a lot of stuff done, and made a fantastic white sheet cake with a peanut-butter frosting.
Sweet and salty- just PERFECT!!
I know- can you believe that I didn't want chocolate? I wanted specifically a white cake with peanut butter icing.
*******************************
That...........
Had to go get some tabs for the cats today.
OMG- Have you ever tried to give a cat a pill and make him swallow it?
Logan wasn't too hard- but Lucy was a magician and spit it out half a dozen times.... until it dissolved and Paul just kinda smeared it on her tongue. She did NOT like that.....at ALL.
*******************************

Bits & Bobs........

This week has been a surprising one in many different ways.
I've learned that being a sweet southern girl isn't always the thing to do, I've learned to hold my tongue in check, that your family can still surprise you -even tho you think you know them like the back of your hand -and that your friends aren't always who you think they are.
That being said- I decided to do a bit of Spring Cleaning again since I have taken a bit of time off from the rat-race. It's the first REAL time off I've had in 6 years, since our honeymoon, that hasn't involved a death in the family or a hospital stay for me. Strange But True.
I've been going thru quite a bit of the household stores and such, cleaning, clearing, and de-cluttering, trying to put some order in the confines of my home.
I'm going thru pictures, looking back on times past and remembering the sweet times we had and the sweet memories of days gone by.
My BFF Rhonni is in the hospital again- for the second time this week- and I decided to bring- and give her the Yearbooks from our Junior High & High School years. Hers have gotten misplaced in past years and I thought she would like to have them. I only kept the signature pages that were in them since those were wrote particularly to me. I hope she enjoys them as much as I have over the years.
I realized that even tho I gave away/ donated so many of my book collection last month- I STILL have a LOAD more I could dispose of. I have maybe a dozen or so I really want to keep for later use when Paul and I finally decide to take the leap and buy our own home.
I walked with Paul today- a bit over two miles. Then we came in, ate breakfast, and then went to the hospital to visit Rhonni for a little while. Then on the way home- we decided to ride by the theater and see what was playing. There was a really cool 3-D movie(Clash of The Titans 3-D) playing, so we used the gift cards our DIL, Kathy, had given us for Christmas to see it. It was AWESOME!!!! it was the first 3-D movie I've ever seen on the big screen. I'm secretly(or maybe NOT so Secretly Now) hoping they come out with 3-D TV soon!!!!
It's been quite the week for sure.
And I'm sure there's more to follow.........Such is the misadventures of my crazy upside down life.