the last 3 books i've read

ok, yeah, i like to read... alot. i'm pretty much a a speed reader, so i can go through a lot of books. this can get expensive, to combat the price i go to the library. sapulpa's is ok, and i do get alot there, but tulsa is even better! since i don't live in tulsa county, i can't get a free card, but at $50 a year, this is a serious bargain.

i'm not real picky, but it does have to have humor, a decent plot and fun characters. i'm not really into sex and violence. if there's too much describing, i put it in the "les miserables" pile, i hated that book! got to page 107, couldn't go any farther, read the cliff notes, and got the highest grade on the final... 86%. when they start describing the lead character taking a leak... well that's just too much for me. i'm thinking something (maybe a lot) was lost in the translation from french, but since i'm lucky to get by in english, i won't be reading the original french novel anytime soon.

so, here's the last 3 books i've read, in no particular order.

Elle Woods, blonde at heart by Natalie Standiford (based on the character created by Amanda Brown)
This is about elle's late teen years, her sophomore year. it's really cute, and i didn't even know it existed until i was browsing the teen section at the brookside branch of the tulsa library. you can find a lot of books just browsing the stacks. anyway, it's really fun, and a quick read and i would recommend it.

Cindy Ella by Robin Palmer
A different take on the whole cinderella thing, and better. she lives in L.A. with her dad, stepmom, 2 twin stepsisters and her half baby brother who is about 1. the step sisters are seniors and she's a sophomore. she's got 2 great friends, and weird guy she IM's with, and a cute new SAT tutor. it's a fun ride. i loved it.

Undead and Unworthy by MaryJanice Davidson
I'm a big fan of the whole "undead and" series, it's a hoot! if they ever make a movie (please, please, pretty please with sugar on top), that chick who played the fiance in the remake of the parent trap should so play betsy. i can see her now... really. if you haven't read any of these books, start with the first one and read them in sequence or you won't get it. i have them all in paperback, and have read them at least 3 times each.


ok, so got the baby afghan done. it's real cute. haven't de cluttered the house yet... i'm working on it slowly... yeah... right.

hmmm, guess that's all for the moment, still stuck at home... car still in shop... stay tuned...

it's alllllll ooooooovvvvveeeeerrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yea, the annoying time of year seems to be over.

well, didn't get my mommy holiday this year. since my car is still in the shop (engine has compression leak, can we say $$$$$$?), there was no way to get everyone to nana's. nana dropped gifts by on wednesday to her brother in kellyville who delivered them here. she has yet to step foot in our house. she visited us twice when we lived in town in the duplex on hickory, but only after first daughter was born. some people say i'm lucky to not have the interfering mom-in-law, whatever. we visit her in inola, and i guess that works out fine.

so, i have a lot of stuff i'd like to do, but with no car, i'm stuck at home. almost done with a baby afghan for a teacher's first grandbaby, but need more yarn. need to de-clutter house, but out of the large black trash bags. yeah.

i've been playing too much puzzle pirates, and i've finished 3 books since saturday. and i've been cooking... great burrito filling:

1lb. ground beef
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 can rotel (do not drain)
1/3 cup instant brown rice
1/4 cup water

brown ground beef, add rest of stuff, bring to boil, lower heat to simmer, cover, simmer about 7 minutes. i used about 6ozs of shredded montery jack cheese. this made 5 burritos with the large flour tortillas. if you want to stretch it, add a can of ranch beans. yummy.

i hope i get my car back soon, i got stuff to do.

stay tuned...

oooohhhhh! almost forgot...

our lovely ex-judge thompson was in the news again! he got picked up on DWI! lovely mugshot photo... so like nick nolte, or gary busey! he's even got an earring in his left ear now. they took another mugshot after they shaved his head and facial hair off and took out his earring, that one made him look like an old skinhead.

seriously feel really sorry for his family.

if you don't live in the area, go to http://newson6.com for the info, look in the local news archives for the past week or two. they don't have the 2nd mug shot up, i saw that on tv, but the first one will give you a giggle.

stay tuned...

9 yr olds new word... christmaholic!

upon hearing that our favorite radio station (mix96) was playing nothing but christmas music from thanksgiving through christmas, my 9 yr old asked "mommy, are they christmaholics?". christmaholic, isn't that a great word? we've decided it applies to anyone who goes overboard and gets drunk on the holiday. if your house can be seen from space because of your light display... if your house looks like you're having a yard sale because of all the decorations... if you have a christmas sweater collection... if the inside of your house looks like an over priced gift shop... if you have more that one christmas tree in your house... (i could go on and on...) then you're a christmaholic.

you can either be proud, or join a support group.

not really enjoying the cold weather... but at least the power hasn't gone out! i get unbearable with no power on... it's not pretty.

joining the digital tv revolution today... directv is upgrading our system. we've still got the same box and dish we put up in dec of 98. we got our 10th anniversary present from directv, $5 off our bill for 10 months. pretty nice of them.

car in the shop for over heating. thought it was fixed, but now the thermostat is sticking! i was lucky to get it home. it just got replaced, so i don't know what the deal is... i'm annoyed.

tried to e-mail ex-best friend, just asked if she was still pissed at me. haven't heard back, so i'm guessing she is. she can hold a grudge, it's only been 2 yrs, maybe i should try in a couple of more years.

ok, back to being cold.

stay tuned...

aaaahhhh... vacation

one wonderful thing about working for the school district is we get all the vacation time the kids do!

the holidays (bah hum bug!) is once again upon us. so, my remote is getting a workout again when i have to mute those damn kay jewelry ads! at least the moody's jewelry don't have a stupid jingle that won't go away.

have joined up on facebook, it's so much nicer than myspace. better interface, and everyone seems to be on there.

so, today i've got to do some wash, and drop a computer that i fixed back to it's home, and get some eggs and cat food at walmart.

interesting development. oldest daughter has developed asthma... from playing the trumpet! activity induced, says the doctor. so she has the flovent once a day and has to carry an inhaler that she uses before band. husband says he developed something similar from playing so much sports, but he grew out of it... so i hope this will happen to her.

husband went hunting on monday and got three deer within 30 mins. made his brother mad, though, cause he's a trophy hunter and husband head shot all 3. lots of meat in the freezer, would have preferred another cow in the freezer or a pig, but the deer will do.

ok, all for now, stay tuned...

Handbasket replaced!

instead of "going to hell in a handbasket!", the country has voted! we are now "going to hell in a stretch limo with a mini bar!"

enough said.

although i am glad it's all over and i don't have to wear out the mute button on my remote anymore! that was getting tiring.

ooooooh! new favorite show! life on mars, 9pm central, on abc! it's really good! this show will hold me over until reaper and lost get back. now, if they would just bring dead like me back, i'd be a happy camper!

the girls ran in the 1k fun run in sapulpa yesterday, there was about 70 people who ran it. they came in in the top 20. now, they just want to rest.

oooooh! really good development! i finally said bye, bye to dial up! got the at&t wireless internet, it's great! i'm only in the edge network at the moment, so download speed is 237k, but when you were putting up with 26k on dial up... this is wonderful! works great with puzzle pirates and husband's party poker. they are expanding the 3G network, so i'll have the 3Mb speed soon, we're right on the edge of it at the moment.

saw ex-best friend in passing at walmart (where you run into everyone), and she didn't give me a dirty look or try to hit me, so maybe she's done being pissed at me. (for info on this, look up september 06 entry)

ok, all for now. stay tuned...

can this election just be over with already?!

i swear, the last month before any major election makes me want to run screaming for the hills! the campaign ads are really giving my remote a workout, i have to hit the mute button so much. we don't get the presidential ads much here in flyover country, so it's a toss up between the inhofe/rice ads or the sullivan/oliver ads as to who makes me cringe more. i'll be so glad when all of this is over... it's just too much.

ok, off soapbox.

stay tuned...

igby goes down

ok, it's hot and it's august and it's a sunday where i'm trying to stay in the house to keep from frying outside.

as usual there is nothing on tv... except golf and infomercials (and we all know how i feel about those!). so, i'm flipping around... trying to find anything. (the only tv hooked to directv is in the living room where hubby is watching 3 shows at once). i'm in the bedroom, with the 13" color. so, yeah, flipping around... and it goes to the fox affiliate (ch. 23), and it says "sunday movie". ohhh, a movie, maybe it's something i haven't seen. then this really bizarre scene comes on... and i keep waiting for the title of the movie (you have to wait a while for it) and by the time the title comes on... i'm hooked! i have to see this movie!

two hours later, i was like... that was really good...! i looked it up on imdb.com and i really don't remember this movie in the theater, but in 2002 i had a lot going on. the girls were 3 and 5, and i was dealing with the older one in full day kindergarten and the younger one not happy about sister gone for so long during the day.

so, anyway, yeah, if you haven't seen "igby goes down", you should really give it a look see.

regular post tomorrow.

a general mishmash of stuff in my noggin

so, it's summer. finally. not that i don't love my job, cause it's never boring and changes from day to day (you never know what elementary age kids will do...), but i love having the time off.

got a new weed eater, it's the orange one a husky? the Swedish one. really nice and takes care of the hilly rocky yard that i could never deal with if i had to use a mower. if you look outside, you'll go "ice storm, what ice storm?" cause it looks like a jungle out there! the tree that fell down in the front yard by the driveway... is still growing! the tall skinny oak trees that kinda snapped at the top, still growing! got love scrub oak trees, husband says that's who we have to worry about taking over the world, not aliens. you cut them down, they grow back tenfold!

trying to figure out what to do this summer besides cleaning out my house. thinking of going over to arkansas to take the girls camping and see some stuff. like quartz crystal hunting, a lake or two, and blanchard springs cavern. cheap vacation, we'll only stay at a motel if it looks like rain. they have showers at the lake campgrounds, and we can roast hot dogs. not going to new mexico this year, nana and papa are in the midst of selling their house to move to colorado to be closer to family. their house is half packed up and not company ready. gonna miss that trip, as we've done it for the past 5 yrs.

am seriously wishing that gas prices would go down, but know that won't happen until after the election, when whoever gets in says "see, look what i did! i made gas go below $2.oo a gallon! i'm the man! (or woman, if hillary pulls something nasty)."

so, i know people are reading this stuff outta my head, but no one comments. what's up with that?

ok, guess there's not anything more in my noggin at the moment. stay tuned...

USA has most land ownership ever!

ok, work with me on this... i've been thinking again. yeah, i know sometimes that's not a good thing.

so, the comic eddie izzard has this comedy bit about flags, and how if you don't have a flag you can't go around claiming land. like when the Europeans showed up over in the USA, they stuck their flag in the ground and claimed whatever land they were standing on for their home country... who cared if the Indians were here... they didn't have a flag and so couldn't claim ownership (they didn't have the concept anyway).

if this stands to reason, then the USA can claim the moon!!!!! right?! we're the only ones who bothered to stick our flag up there! we've got the whole thing! it's totally brilliant!


school is out on thursday, 3 more days after the holiday weekend. everyone is more than ready to leave. the kids are totally restless! this is somewhat bittersweet for me as my first baby is leaving elementary school and going to the middle school, she won't be where i'm working anymore. my baby baby has 2 more years with me.


i won't even touch on the debacle of a campaign season except to say have you seen the pic with the candidates faces superimposed on the faces of the 3 stooges!? it's a laugh riot!

that's all for me today, going shopping at promenade mall and then to spaghetti warehouse for a late lunch early dinner (dinch). between breakfast and lunch is brunch, between lunch and dinner is dinch. mom came up with that one years ago, like when i was 7 or 8.

ok, outta here, stay tuned....

the official "cheesy" rating scale

ok, this one has been bouncing around in my head for years. i finally sat down the other day and got it defined. feel free to let me know where you think maybe something needs to be added, we'll get it right in the end!

CHEESY RATING SCALE (or cheesey, or cheesie, or just plain cheese... it's up to you)

* -cheddar cheese soup- example: any sci-fi or fantasy movie before the original star wars.

** -velvetta- example: any tv show older than 10 years (brady bunch, waltons, little house on the prarie, saved by the bell). not that i won't watch these type of shows... but gads, some of this stuff was really cheesy!

*** -processed cheese single slices (the plastic wrapped ones)- example: any 1/2 hour infomercial selling anything! and i do mean anything, have you seen late night tv lately?! it's scary!

**** -spray can cheese- example: any gadget for $19.95 tv ad, also valentine's day and mom's day floral ads.

***** -rancid spray can cheese- example: jewelry ads during christmas! this is the new one i just had to come up with, didn't think there was anything worse than spray can cheese... but this years holiday jewelry ads proved me wrong!

so, there it is... pass it around to all your friends.

stay tuned...

photo catch-up and bad labeling design

ok, so at first glance, what does this look like to you? mexican pop? fruit juice?

now, take a closer look... that's right... it's floor cleaner! it claims to have a child proof cap, but we all know those are really adult proof caps! this was at wal-mart on one of those center of the aisle square display things, no where near the cleaner section. isn't there some law against this type of packaging?
here's a baby afghan i made for one of our teachers who is due at the end of the month. she has 2 boys and is having a girl this time, she wanted something that screamed "baby girl", i think this fits the bill.
ok, so here is the pic of the branch through my roof. nice isn't it? it was like this for about 24 hours, until it was sort of safe (but not really) for husband to get on the roof with the chain saw and remove the branch and put up a new sheet of metal roofing.

have i mentioned how much i HATE winter weather?!

so, back to regular schedule tomorrow. vacation is fun, but after a while you want normal routine to return.

stay tuned...

puzzle pirate me!

only good version of a christmas carol movie

k, so i'm enjoying my mommy holiday 'cause husband took the girls to his mom's for the night, and what is AMC showing, but the only good version of a christmas carol. it's the one with george c. scott as scrooge. i've seen others, and with the exception of the mickey mouse version with scrooge mcduck as scrooge, they all really tank. so, if you've never seen this one, get it on the list for next year's viewing, or see if netflix has it.

also watched 40 yr old virgin on USA, gotta love that for every 15 minutes of movie you get 5 minutes of ads, including my personal hate, that stupid little voice recorder thingy! the actors in the ad are SO stupid looking! like anyone acts like that... ugh! just "spray can cheese" rating for those ads, not the "rancid spray can cheese" like the holiday jewelry ads.

hanging around the house, gonna have to face walmart at some point today, we need milk and cat litter. and i'm sure a few other things i can't think of at the moment. i'm sure i'll also spend some part of the day on puzzle pirates.

so, just a week until school is back in on the 3rd. lets hope that the weather behaves itself and doesn't do anything nasty, we already used up the 3 snow days that were built into the school year.

guess that's all, stay tuned...

ice storms SUCK!, and other bah humbug rantings...

we had no power for like a week! the 17th century is fun for like maybe 2 days, and then, PLEASE give me back my 21st century life. i really think i could have dealt with it better had it not been so DAMN cold, and i had a cold, and of course... my period chose to to show up bright and early on monday morning (a few hours after the power went out). was there like some memo somewhere... "dump on me day"? or should i say week? and of course, that big tree beside the house just HAD to put a branch through the roof so i could have a water feature in the corner of the girls bedroom. luckily, it went between two beams and just punched a hole in the metal roof, which was easily fixed the next day when husband climbed on icy roof to replace the sheet of metal roofing. and... that water i was collecting in bowls was coming in handy to flush the toilet... but still... i can only take so much.

ok, on to the bah humbug part of this rant.

can jewelry ads on tv get any more cheesy?! i now cringe when i see one! they were at the bottom of the cheese scale being "spray can cheese", now i've had to come up with a lower rating... "rancid spray can cheese". as if this pagan forced gift giving season isn't bad enough! the real holiday "winter solstice" was yesterday, it's the rebirth of the "sun". it's a roman holiday. you show me in the bible where it says "on december 25th i want you to put up a tree and decorate it and give presents to people" and i won't bug you about it. the only birthday celebrations mentioned in the bible are where bad things happen to christians (john the baptist's head on a platter, for instance). birthday celebrations were pagan traditions! not christian ones! if you do any study of the bible and bible history you'll figure out that jesus was born sometime in mid fall, not the dead of winter.

stupid people bother me... but i think you've figured that out already. it's like my biggest pet peeve along with ill-named children.

so, ok, yeah... i'm done for the moment. stay tuned...

OKC state fair and eskimo joes

went to the OKC state fair last saturday, as i said we would 'cause of our boycott of the tulsa state fair. and i have to say, that it was ok, but we won't go back. it was a poor imitation of the tulsa state fair, which we now know is where the good fair is. my first annoyance was the lack of the super round up ride, it continued when they didn't have a kids zone area with make and take craft projects for free, and the local radio stations and tv stations were absent (along with all the goodies they give out), and well.... just a lot of other things. it's sad really, because this is the state capitol, and the state's 100th birthday, and the fair wasn't worth the $18 i had to pay to get us in the gate, plus the $40 for ride coupons, plus other money for food.

so, on the way home we were planning to go to this new restaurant/convience market/gas station on route 66 near acadia called "pops". we went north on 35 instead of getting on the turner turnpike for home and got off at the route 66 exit instead and went east for acadia. when we got there, right about 2pm, they were packed! and they said that since they close for an hour between 3 and 4 pm, that they wouldn't be seating anyone else until 4pm. well, we didn't want to wait that long, so we each got a bottle of pop from the large selection of stuff you normally can't get and continued on route 66 toward home. the scenic route. we get to wellston, and we get to the crossroads... i see a sign for stillwater... and decided that eskimo joes would be fun! it was only 30 miles... what the hey!

we get into stillwater... and geee... there sure are alot of cars! as we get closer to joes i realize there is a home game at OSU this weekend, and not just any home game, but the one with texas tech! i dropped mom off in front of joes and find a parking spot in a grass lot 2 blocks away. mom calls me and says it's open seating, but she's found us a small table upstairs. when we get there, we only find 1 chair, but we order anyway, and i find us 3 more chairs not too far away. it's noisy, it's really crowded... but it's also a lot of FUN! i've never watched football like this, and i've decided it really the only fun way to do it. with lots of people and cheering and screaming! it was a blast, and the food was good too. we brought home our cups, we have 2 orange and 2 purple.

so, that was the weekend, and i think we need to do that again sometime... just being out on the open road, and making a last minute dicision to go north to fun!

stay tuned...

oh! the chili cook-off is on the 5th of october... downtown sapulpa! be there or be square!

oooohhhh! new to me car!

yes, a newer car than i've ever had. it's a 2003 nissan sentra, white, with dark tint windows. and..... and a/c that actually works! i usually don't get cars until they are 8 to 10 years old, so this is a real treat for me. we gave 7 grand for it. i've got loan payments, but i've got a job and husband got a really great job that he loves, so we can actually afford it.

only one more full year of child support... the first one will be 18 in march, the other turns 17 this week.

so, i guess i've been lax on the blogging... i've been lax with my journal also. just so much going on and i swear the days just blur together! this last week is a classic example. getting back into the swing of the school year. the whole re drawing of the elementary districting lines was SO a mistake and i swear they had no clue what they were doing! the busing schedule is just now getting to where people know where they stop and pick up. we've been in school for 8 days! we're down on enrollment, but not much. jefferson heights is over flowing!

finally saw that movie "the queen". it was pretty good. it was on starz tonight. i remember all that stuff like it was yesterday.

the chili contest is on october 5th this year in downtown sapulpa. i'm entering again... maybe i can get 1st place this year. $500 first prize would be nice.

the okc state fair is sept. 13-23. we'll be there one of the saturday's. we're going to that new pops restaurant on the way home. it looks pretty cool... i was hoping they would have delaware punch, but i looked at the list of pops they have and it isn't listed. i'm going to buy the base for it online so we can have it that way.

husband is dove hunting in inola. he said they haven't seen much. i think the dove all have hunting season marked on their calendars so they know when to hide... they're not stupid.

so, anyway, i guess that's all for the moment... stay tuned...

BOYCOTT THE TULSA STATE FAIR!

this is a public service announcement and a call to action! boycott the tulsa state fair for what they have done to bell's amusement park! they made them move so they could put in a parking lot! this totally stinks! our family will be giving our money to the OKC state fair!

for even more fun... let's all send the fair board commission a piece of gravel for the new parking lot!

i am so stinking mad about this! a tulsa tradition for 50 some years and they kick them out! it's just wrong!!!!!!

anniversary, going west, horrid motel room

so, our 12th anniversary was on monday. we did the redneck thing, went bowling. i beat him the first game by 3 points, he smoked me on the second game by 20 points! at one point, i'm swinging my arm back for the throw, and the ball slipped out of my hand and went backwards... bouncing to the floor behind me! i thought this only happened in cartoons! everybody was laughing with me! it was funny! after the bowling, we went by the liquor store for some rum, reasor's for the coke classic and orange juice, and home. we finally decided to drink that bottle of champain from our wedding, it was still good, and knocked me on my butt. didn't even have any rum and coke. i really can't believe it's already been 12 years... seems like we just got married a couple of months ago...

so, we're in silver city, nm right now at my nana and papas (dads parents). on the way here we saw so many windmills! it's soooooo cool! there's more this year than last. i think this is a great idea for power.

we get to santa rosa, nm to stay the night at the sun n' sand. DO NOT STAY THERE! they have two sets of room, one for adults (these are the clean rooms) and another for familys or those with pets (nasty dirty rooms). this is a chick trip, me, mom, and the girls and mom's two girl cats maggie and tabby. thanks goodness mom always carries a small cleaning kit (she does clean houses for a living) with us. she gave the room a good scrub while the girls and i went to the park lake that they have there. this is the main reason that we stay in santa rosa instead of going farther on to vaughn. anyway, we won't be staying there again! and i'm giving them a sucky review on yahoo.

so, that's all for the moment. a public service announcement is the next blog post, then i'm out of here for the moment.

KFC "doggie bag" bowls

Ok, so the KFC bowls. Who looked at the doggie bag container and decided this could be sold as an entrée? I mean really?!
There used to be this restaurant in the Tulsa area called “po folks”. If you’re from the south, you probably used to eat there. I loved that place! Lots of biscuits on the table with butter and honey… plus all the other wonderful southern foods. I really wish they had never left.
Anyway, if you ever did take a doggie bag home from this restaurant, it looked a lot like the KFC bowls. And this is what we fed the dog or cat or visiting opossum or visiting raccoon. We’d just dump the doggie bag on an old cookie sheet on the porch and let whatever animal got there first eat up. We certainly never actually ate what we brought home, we just didn’t want to throw away good food that could be fed to the friendly critters that inhabit our neighborhood.
And now, if you’ve noticed their latest creation, it includes a biscuit! I don’t eat at KFC because I like the local place we’ve got “charlie’s chicken”. It’s a local chain place that has better food for a better price.
And they don’t have “doggie bag” bowls!


So, yeah! Summer is going on. It’s raining like from the day’s of noah, but at least it’s not like last year where I was worried about wildfires from some dumb donkey throwing his cigarette butts out the window! Now it looks like a jungle outside because it won’t dry up enough to get out there with the weed wacker and mower.
‘til next time. Stay tuned…