Blog Envy

As many of you know, and my waistline can attest to, I love to cook and bake.

Whodathunkit?

I like to take pictures of my creations when I'm done so I can share my joy with my friends, but my kitchen just isn't photogenic.

These are the Pecan Divines I made last night. The recipe came from the cozy mystery Fudge Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke, which I'll be reviewing on my book blog in the next day or so.

I have so many recipe sites book marked and saved  that I could probably be baking from now til the end of time. (And I'd be bigger than a house). I only wish my camera could capture my creations as well as the other food bloggers out there.

I really love making cookies. I find the process very relaxing, except when my father is parading around the kitchen. Then I lose what's left of my mind.

Next up Funfetti Cake Batter Cookies! Those will have to be pretty, right?

Tea and Sympathy

Dad is in the hospital and he's not doing well.

I'm at my wits end and as always it feels like everything is on my shoulders.

I'm worried about dad. I'm worried about mom who doesn't know how she could cope without the man she's been married to almost all her life.

My church does not care.

Do you hear that, Mary, Mother Of The Church, you do not care.

Why?

Because we are poor.

We live in a house that is heated by space heaters.

It is cold.

I don't make enough money where I work to fix things. I struggle to keep the house clean and laundry done.

I have no extras.

I don't go out to eat. I don't buy frivolous things.

My computer is 5 years old and is the only thing that connects me to people anymore.

Not once has a priest called us, and I used to feel Father Jerry was a friend.

I don't anymore.

I don't know what to do.

Any programs that are gov't funded would require a lien being placed on our house. This is unacceptable. If they went to a nursing home, they would be separated, which is even more unacceptable.

We can't win for losing.

A Little Good News

Most of you know I do a little writing on the side. Well, today I got an email saying that one of the reps for a musician that I recently reviewed wanted me to post my review to my websites.

That's a first.

I feel kinda proud of myself right now.

If you want to read my review and check out a gorgeous song from the CD click here.

The artist is Bogdan Ota and the album is called Day of Wrath. I always find it difficult to review instrumental music, so that's another reason I'm excited that my review was well received.

Its great to get some news that actually makes me smile for once!

Retail Therapy Anyone?

Today was one of those days.

Our house is broken? Have I mentioned that?

Woke up to find one of the breakers had been tripped last night and none of the things that were plugged in were working.

Yee ha!

Thankfully we flipped the breaker a few times and voila! everything worked again.

That is how my day started.

From there on, I just couldn't function.

Not to mention, my sister's cat Mew passed away today.

Mew was such a sweet little furbaby and she had 13 wonderful years with my sister. I know she'll be missed.

So after all that, I decided I needed to do some shopping so I could feel better. I bought a dress a top and a sweater online at Kohl's.

Sometimes you just gotta shop.

Not A Good Day

Dad's been to the hospital twice today.

Once at midnight, and he was released at 2:30 and then a few hours later.

He's going to have a short stay.

Here's hoping we can keep all our sanity until he comes home.

For all the time I spend at Mon Valley Hospital, I should work there.

This Is What I've Done With My Holiday Weekend

1. Stuffed my face with too much food.

2. Watched Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Arthur Christmas

3. Did a whole lot of nothing and slept in very strange patterns.

4. Actually got to the Y a few times, but that did nothing to cancel out all the food I consumed in the last 4 days.

5. Slept in the damn chair and gave myself back pain.

5. Played with the kittens

Yup I lead such an exciting life!

Just A Few Words

I'm a cheap date.

Give me one Sam Adams Winter Lager and I'm out like a light. Of course I only got about 5 hours of sleep last night, but still.

Zzzzz

I slept through all the shows I usually watch on Monday night.

2 Broke Girls

Zzzzzz

Mike and Molly

Zzzzzz


I guess I needed the sleep, right?

Its such an exciting life I lead.

Not Looking Forward To Friday

I have a doctor's appointment in the afternoon.

Not looking forward to any of it.

Especially not the stepping on the scale part of it.

I've tried hard to get the scale to drop.

However, dealing with the everyday insanity of taking care of my parents makes it very difficult not to eat.

I'm just going to cry when I go into the office.

~sigh~

Something I learned today

I went to the dentist for a cleaning today. It was one of the most painful cleanings ever! However my dentist gave me a bit of info.

1. 4 out of 5 dentists surveyed means...4 out of 5 dentists except samples from the company.

2. The original Listerine or the generic equivalent works better to correct or prevent gum disease than any other mouth wash or prescription.

3. It seems that pharmaceutical companies pay their pharmacists for each flu shot they give. There are sales quotes on shots? WTF!

Pardon me, while I go rinse....

Cleaning Out The Closets

I'm going through my closets now and getting rid of stuff I haven't worn and stuff that just doesn't fit.

Damn fat!

I hate doing this, but its that time again.

Time to try to create space.

I'm never very good at that.

I have one dress that I bought ages ago...a cream colored crocheted dress. Its still beautiful. There isn't any way it is going to fit me again, but I just can't get rid of it. It is sad.

Maybe it is because I only wore it one time.

Whatever, when I started tossing old clothes, that dress was staring me in the face...now I feel bad.

This could be the reason I only clean out closets once or twice a year.

Hurry Down Doomsday Sleep Is Taking Over

When I get in a funk, I find myself sleeping a lot. I don't mean an off day where you feel kinda blue, I mean when all the frustrations of the world just take over and drain your life force.

Yeah that's where I am again.

It doesn't help matters we have a set of neighbors that have no respect for people. They are remodeling their house. (which they don't live in yet, and haven't lived in for the past year or so since they bought it) And they only work on the house on the weekend. They come with a contractor who always parks his vehicle in front of our garage. (good thing its my dad's car that's in there or we'd really be pissed) Then they take up the rest of the block.

Now yesterday was a fun one.

They show up at 7:30, and thanks to my sister's piece of crap car which broke down the night before, I got wedged in. As in, there was no room for me to get my car out of its spot. (And if I had left, I wouldn't have one when I came back)

So needless to say, I got nothing done, because they were next door til 5 o'clock.

Trust me when I say, you don't want to spent a full 24 hours in my house.

It is depressing.

I think I fell asleep before 10 last night.

Caffeine High

I never thought a Moo-Latte would have the power to keep me awake! Boy was I wrong! I got a Mocha Moo-Latte at 7 o'clock and that was a huge mistake! It is 11:30 and I'm totally wired! Not what I wanted to be right now. On a plus, I got one of the two reviews I needed to write done! I really don't want to have reviews hanging over my head this weekend. I want to be stress free in that area of my life!

A Real Update

OK, so I'm hating most everyone right now, but that's nothing new. I'm a crabby bitch and that can't be changed but here are some of the things going on right now.

1. Found a bunch of photos I forgot I took when cleaning out some old discs around my desk.

2. Sister decided to schedule a vacation and not tell any of us until the last minute. She has promised me that I will get Saturday to do whatever I want. Really? Whatever? If I wanted to go to Sugarcreek, OH, I'd have to be up and out of town by 6, I doubt she'd be here ready to take care of mom and dad. Plus no one will be around to go anywhere with me.

3. I can't get anything accomplished on weekends, because my father is a PAIN IN THE ASS! I love him to bits, but he won't sit still and he's driving me crazy! Or perhaps the term is crazier!

4. Chicken Romano @ Riverhouse Cafe is totally awesome. This should be on the menu all the time it  is so good.

5. Started dejunking my room. Going through CDs I've had for review that I'm never going to listen to again. I may do a giveaway for some of them.

From Bad To Worse

I think the question really is, what didn't happen to me today.

1. Found out that they shut the electric off in my house (not the one I live in, of course) on May 15th for no good reason.

2. I go down to take out the fuses and discover there was something left in the freezer that is now..super rotten and the house REEKS!

3. There's no water! WTF! I pay the bill every damn month on time!

4. Had to find motel rooms in Baltimore for one night for the work crew. WTF is going on in Baltimore tonight?

5. Boss was getting a bit pissy with me about something that left me unsettled.

I can't take much more. Nothing is going right for me at all. I can't get anything situated..I can't get anything accomplished.

It is just all too damn much!

Too Much Junk

I'm in the processing of cleaning up a lot of stuff.  And when I say a lot of stuff, I mean a lot. Ours is a family of  pack rats. We don't like to get rid of stuff. So it gets put in boxes and bins and is filed away taking up unnecessary space in our house that is too damn small.

In the course of the last few weeks, I've probably made the garbage man curse us at least a dozen times. He'll probably keep cursing us for the next few weeks, because there is so much more crap to pitch out..old magazines, post cards etc.

There' s no making this house look pretty. I don't have the money for that, but I would like it to look semi-presentable some day. That's not too much to ask right?

However if anyone wants to make a donation to help me get carpeting or curtains..I'm not going to complain! Oh and while I'm at it a garbage dumpster..that would make things so much easier! I could just toss the crap out the window! (I've always wanted to do that!)

Maybe by Christmas I'll have this house in some semblance of order!

Yeah right!

Too Tired

I spent most of the day trying to clean the dining room.

We have entirely too much clutter in this house and over the past few weeks, I've been trying to get rid of stuff that isn't necessary.

I'm pretty sure the garbage man hates me.

I'm working on the first floor right now...Kitchen, Dining Room and Living Room. I have managed to get a few things in the bathroom in order too. That's a plus.

Having a house that was never remodeled and is over 100 years old is not fun for many reasons.

1. No central air..and erm..we have a coal furnace.

2. No closet space in any of the bedrooms.

3. No cabinets in the kitchen either. I would love to know how the couple that lived in this house before 1967 did their cooking, because using the kitchen table to prepare meals is not fun in any sense of the word.

I still have lots to do tomorrow...laundry and more dejunking. If anyone wants to help...Please show up with garbage bags and a squeezy mop please! I want to clean the walls.

Something To Ponder

Why is it that the safe place you put something, is also the place you forget about when you have to look for that item?

I put a library book in a gym bag, because one of my cats isn't fond of books at all. Apparently he's upset that he doesn't know how to read, and he uses them, and any other form of print media as a scratching pad.

So today, I'm hunting down my books, because they are due on Saturday and I want to get them read, so I don't have to renew them again, and I can't find the damn thing.

It took 2 hours and 3 people to find the safe place I put the book, which we had all walked past about 3 dozen times during our search.

~Sigh~

Once again proving that none of us attended Millvale School For The Gifted

This Weekend I Cleaned

I think I mentioned that our house is over 100 years old, and Amish people could use it...except that we have electricity.

Our kitchen is a huge pain in the butt. Thanks to some not so well placed windows we have no counter space what so ever. No cabinets..nothing. So we always have to improvise.

This weekend I did a lot of improvising in the kitchen.

Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

The plus is that the kitchen looks a lot better. The problem is, I still need to wash walls down, and I don't know how in the hell that is going to happen. There is a market lack of men in my life that can help me with walls.

Again I ponder why there isn't a rent a man shop for these little things. I just want the house looking semi habitable. That's not too much to ask right?

So anyone have any tips for cleaning walls?

Let Me Tell You About My Day

Mom was set for discharge at 5:30 today. That way I wouldn't have any issues with work. I could work a full day. As I'm driving to work the social worker calls to tell me that they need the bed and could she come home early.

So much for working a full day today!

Mom still isn't strong and her meds have all been rearranged. This does not make me a happy camper. Doing her pills from now on is going to be stressful. Plus I have to schedule a doctor's appointment for her in 10 days. ARGH!

Then at some point my cell phone's charger port dies, therefore making my smartphone useless. I headed to Verizon only to be told there was nothing they could do. Thank god I still had my old LG enV, so  I have a phone, but all my apps and photos are gone because the USB connector died. Tomorrow I swear I'm going to drop that phone out of the window so it shatters into a million pieces on the pavement.

On a happy note, I got the new Zac Brown Band CD and a wonderful iced coffee at Starbucks. It really is the little things in life that make me happy.

Oh and I read a really great historical novel about Princess Louise of England, The Wild Princess. If that is your thing, this is definitely a great read. Good historical detail mixed with fiction.

Don't Take My Job

No I don't mean my actual job. Someone can take that if they want it. (Tee hee)

No what I mean is my job at home.

I may get frustrated. I may get angry. I may want to throw things, but in 2008 I made a promise to my grandmother that I would take care of my mom. I promised gram that and I will not go back on that promise.

See I loved my gram so much..and I love my mom so much, that I really don't care about other things. Yes, I'd love to get out every now and then, and it would be nice if other people would actually relieve me for a few hours, but I hate when other people do the job I feel that I should be doing. It bugs me an awful lot.

Plus in the last few years, I've really come to enjoy cooking, and I like to try new recipes, so there is that.

So does my insanity make sense?

I hope so.