Personality

Dog Food is Complicated

4 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Personality /

When DID dog food get so complicated?

I’ve had at least one dog for most of my life and I’ve never spent more than two minutes choosing a dog food. What’s the cheapest? Have I bought it before, only to have the dog turn up her nose at it, (though honestly, this has always been more likely to happen with cats)? Have I bought it and the dog had any weird stomach things happen around the same time that might be attributed to this dog food.

And that’s it. End of thought process.

So why in the hell am I not only asking people on Chatter/Twitter/Facebook about dog food but also considering only higher priced dog foods — dog foods you can’t get at the grocery store?

Hell, I even asked the damn vet if he had a dog food recommendation.

And when did dogs start having gluten problems? Is that new? Because I’m almost 50 years old and for a good 40+ years of that time, I’d never seen a single gluten-intolerant dog. I worked at a KENNEL for three years and we never had a dog come in with a special gluten-free/grain-free food. EVER.

Skeeter will LITERALLY eat anything at all. It might not do her tummy any good to eat Elly’s sock or the Hershey’s chocolate bar wrapper she dug out of the trash — but she’ll eat it but here I am wondering about what food to buy. Whether we should just stick with the brand she’s used to, just in adult formula, in case she doesn’t “like” a different kind. Then again, she’s thrilled when she can break into the shih tzu’s room and eat his Kibbles n Bits (or whatever inexpensive food HE is eating.)

I’ve become one of those dog owners. I have to just admit it – to myself, and to all of you (who have already figured that out.)

It wasn’t the making of the dog toys last weekend that cinched it. It is the indecision over dog food.

Hell.

Dog Food is Complicated Read More »

Rearranged

Daily Dose, Day to Day, Personality, Pet Peeves /

TW has been threatening to rearrange furniture and she finally did it.

It made me and Skeeter very nervous.

Neither of us are fans of the furniture moving.

We are both creatures of habit and we like our spaces to stay OUR spaces.

Skeeter will probably go pee on the floor or chew something up.

I’ll just bump into things for awhile. Maybe have a few weird dreams or nightmares.

Gah.

Rearranged Read More »

Airing Another Dirty Little Secret

2 Comments / Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Daily Dose, Personality, Pet Peeves /

Yesterday I confessed to hating Little Golden Books. (I know. I know.) Today, I have a bigger confession. This one makes me really nervous.

Until last year, I hated The Monster at the End of This Book.

I know. I KNOW.

Here’s the problem… while I loved (and still love) Sesame Street, I did not love Little Golden Books. I did not own many Little Golden Books. I did not buy many Little Golden Books for my kids.

The Monster at the End of This Book was published in 1971, (I was 8 and my brother was 4), as a Little Golden Book.

Pshaw.

For most of my life I’ve heard adults rave about how awesome The Monster At the End of This Book is. I’ve seen people I otherwise loved and respected put The Monster at the End of This Book on their favorite books of all times list.

I’ve always rolled my eyes at those people.

ALWAYS.

And then, Starbucks was doing that free song or app of the week thing, (They still do it, but this was back when it was still new and I was excited by those little cards every Tuesday), and The Monster At the End of This Book app was the free app. I shrugged and said what the hell. It’s free. I’ll look at it. I’ll delete it.

Except I did not delete it. I held on to it because the app is cute. And.

Gasp.

The book is cute.

When JMP was born I was very excited because I could play with the app with him some day… and we did that when he was here in January. It was a little dissatisfying for both of us, he was a little young — he’d be better at it now. The app is still on my phone. It’s on my iPad, too. We’ll play with it again someday.

And, I really like The Monster At The End of This Book.

I particularly like that I can buy it in formats other than Little Golden…

Airing Another Dirty Little Secret Read More »

Letter to My…

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Memes and Quizzes, Personality, Questions and Answers /

I was reading Adela’s post again, Advice to My Younger Self, and realized I’ve never written one of these types of letters. Or if I have, it was when I was a child and forced to write one in school (and then promptly forgot about it.)

I thought I might be the only person in the world who’s never written such a letter because they’re so common online but TW says she’s never written one either.

Interesting.

Are we the only ones?

And did you write these kinds of letters to yourself when you were a kid? Michelle Belle did that and then read them when she was… I don’t remember… 18 maybe? But she’s very much a time capsule, look back on my life, look ahead to my life sort of person.

I am not.

Maybe I should be?

I’m considering writing a letter to my 60 year old self. Or at least attempting it. Is that dumb? It feels kind of dumb. But if the rest of the world can write letters like this, why can’t I?

Letter to My… Read More »

To Work or Not To Work — Dumb Question

Daily Dose, Personality, Work /

I’ve been at my desk working since about 4:30. It’s 6pm now. I’ve gotten up a couple of times to let the dog out. And, I did get up and fix a plate for dinner (which I ate at my desk, working) and I scooped some ice cream for myself and Elly (which I ate at my desk, working.)

As soon as I finish writing this post, I’ll start a load of laundry and I’ll clean the kitchen. After that… do I come back here to my desk and work some more? Or do I call it done for the weekend?

It’s never a matter of will I work or won’t I work, on my days off. It’s a matter of how much I’ll work.

If I don’t get a jumpstart on the week, or catch up on what fell through the cracks last week, I’ll be so far behind that I’ll never catch up. Or, more likely I’ll catch up by working 16 hour days until it’s done. I love my job but I kind of hate 16 hour work days.

I don’t particularly love spending six hours on a Sunday night at my desk, either.

There are books to read and Firemom watched Dawson’s Creek in front of the Christmas tree today, which sounded like a ton of fun to me. There are movies I haven’t seen that I could be watching. There’s a puppy who’d love me to throw a toy for her for awhile. There are teenagers I could harass, because they so love it when I harass them. I could call my big kids. I could play with my iPad. I could re-organize the cabinets and the stockpile room. I could wrap the last two packages for JMP and his parents and get their boxes packed (and the Fake Husband’s box packed.) There are so many things I could do.

But I won’t.

I’m going to come right back here and barrel through. The work calls and if I don’t answer, I’ll be here tomorrow night until 9pm playing catch up and kicking myself for not getting it done.

To Work or Not To Work — Dumb Question Read More »

The Problem with Passion

10 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, NaBloPoMo, Personality, Pet Peeves /

Once upon a time, you could write a post about almost anything and be fairly confident you weren’t going to be attacked, ridiculed, questioned, or called out as having completely missed the boat.

I’m not talking about the traditional hot button topics like abortion, circumcision, bottle feeding, religion, alternative sex topics, politics — those always have been hot button issues and probably always will be.

No, I’m talking about things like recipes and family stories and lists of favorite things. Those types of posts used to bring in discussion. People who could relate said so. People who had ideas to share did so. People who couldn’t relate or didn’t have anything to add, either stayed silent or left a comment indicating they’d read the piece but didn’t have a lot to add.

In today’s hyper-active internet, no topic is safe any more.

Post a recipe, someone’s going to have something negative to say about it.

Post a list of favorite things, someone’s going to call you out for missing something.

Misuse a comma and you’re fucked. An apostrophe out of place and you’re even more fucked.

The peoples, they are passionate. And I’m not just talking about other peoples. I find myself doing it, or close to doing it, a whole lot more often than ever before.

It’s so bloody easy to let our personal (or professional) passions get the better of us. It’s hard to read with a gentle eye. It’s hard to stop and look at the individual behind the post. Who is she? Where is she coming from? What led her to post this recipe, story, list, idea? If we stop to look and listen. Stop to think about the person behind the post, would we be less quick to react from a place of passion? Would that allow us to have more proactive and positive online interactions?

We’re not all professional writers, recipe developers, politicians, activists, etc. Most of us are just people who want to share ourselves with others. Our posts aren’t perfectly polished. Our ideas aren’t perfectly formed. Our experiences are colored by our environment. Our beliefs are informed by our histories. We’re also not that interesting in changing others at every drop of the hat, so there’s no reason to get your hackles up if someone posts something counter to your beliefs, opinions or experiences. And, we really do not want to be changed, improved or informed about all of our shortcomings (in your opinion) at every drop of the hat.

I need to remember to use my passion wisely and maybe not always take things quite so personally. How about you?

The Problem with Passion Read More »

How the heck do you wear this thing?

4 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Personality, Pet Peeves /

Did I mention TW made me a really gorgeous alpaca scarf? She did. I love it (thank you @haldechick and Knit 1.)

Today, I was at Great Lakes getting gas and it was 9 degrees. Plus wind. And it is really really windy in the Great Lakes Naval Station area. As I was pumping the gas, and freezing my ass off, and thanking GOD and TOYOTA for making a car that gets such damn good gas mileage that I only need to put two or three gallons in thus standing in the cold for only a few minutes, I realized that I could wrap that really awesome scarf around my mouth and nose rather than leaving it wrapped around my neck (which was already covered by coat.)

One problem. I don’t know how to wrap a scarf properly around my mouth and nose.

I see people do it all of the time in movies and on TV. I’ve read books where people do this. I’ve even seen a few people up here in arctic Illinois do it. But when I tried it, the scarf just slipped down. I am scarf illiterate.

TW attempted to model scarf wearing. But, it just made me laugh. I think I need more help than TW can give me.

tw modeling scarf wearing



















How the heck do you wear this thing? Read More »

Wii Fit has arrived and…

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Diet and Exercise, Personality /

I would normally be twittering this stuff but twitter is down… it’s too good NOT to share so I’ll publish for posterity right here:

We were at our desks, and suddenly TW leaps out of her chair and barrels through the boxes and the furniture and the dog running toward the door.

I’m like WTF?  And then I realize, the UPS truck is here.  The Wii Fit has arrived.

She’s opening the box, not listening to a word I’m saying about MR Obama and his misogyny and suddenly… she SNIFFS the Wii Fit.  Yes, she SNIFFED IT.

What in the hell will this thing cause her to do next? (Besides log off of her computer for the day…)

Wii Fit has arrived and… Read More »

Sabotage

5 Comments / Daily Dose, Diet and Exercise, Personality, Pet Peeves /

A bit more than a year ago (I can’t remember exactly when) I decided to give up ‘Nutter Butters forever. I did this in support of some folks who were trying to “give stuff up”. I also did this because ‘Nutter Butters were beginning to become a pretty serious problem for me.

I’m not generally a give up X forever kind of person. People who say they’re going to give up carbs or give up sodas or give up TV foreverrrrrrrrr because they aren’t healthy just don’t make sense to me. Everything in moderation tends to be my motto. Except, when it comes to ‘Nutter Butters.

They are a problem and I kicked the habit. No ‘Nutter Butters in a year. None.

On Friday Thursday, Michelle and I ran into the grocery store for some junk food and I grabbed a couple of packages of those individually wrapped cookies and crackers – they were two for one. One of those packages contains mini ‘Nutter Butters. I did not, for anything more than a second, consider opening a package (or all of the packages) and eating them.

Today, for some reason, TW placed a package of the ‘Nutter Butters on my bedside table. I noticed it after a trip to the bathroom. I moved the package to HER bedside table and griped at her about it.

She moved the package back to my bedside table and I moved it back to hers.

Then, she moved it so that it is under the glass of my desk, just to the left of my computer. I removed it and handed it to Liz to eat or do what she pleased with. She gave it to Prince J who graciously ate them.

TW is ticking me off.

Why do people feel the need to challenge someone else’s will power. That’s messed up, isn’t it? Someone ought to speak to her about that kind of behavior. Maybe I’ll call her mother and tattle?

Sabotage Read More »

We may be in trouble

6 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Personality /

I am the person in this house who is responsible for finding things. It doesn’t matter what is missing, or even if it isn’t missing, everyone – and I mean everyone – yells “Denise (or mom) have you seen….?” And I either immediately reply with ….’s whereabouts. Or, I immediately get up and find it – usually within a few moments of looking. It’s my job and I’m so good at it that nobody ever bothers to look for anything at all. They just ask me where it is.

Yesterday was a very long day. I had something like eight phone calls on top of the zillion emails and all of the other stuff I do every day. I was tired. I twittered that I was going to log off, without packing any boxes again because I was just that tired. More twittering occurred and I changed my mind and decided I could pack just one box. (My goal right now is one box a day…)

I got up. I packed three boxes. All of the purple books from the bookshelf. I needed the packing tape. I went to the bedroom and looked on the grandma cubby, on my bedside table, in my bedside table, in the living room on the entertainment center, in the dining room on the bookshelf. All places where tape is routinely found. No tape.

I looked around the office. I looked inside of my desk. I looked inside TW’s desk. I looked in the little red IKEA box that holds spare pens, glue and office supplies. I looked in the plastic bins stacked in the office, full of stuff we’re planning to sell on eBay or on Amazon. I looked in the little red basket that sits on my desk top. No tape.

I gave up and went to bed. TW and I bought packing tape this morning. That tape is still in the trunk of the car.

Just a moment ago, I came out of the bedroom and into the office and there is the tape. On my desk. Right in front of me. The place where I sit every single day for at least 12 hours a day. Right there. In front of me. Click the picture, you’ll see it.

may-003.jpg

We may be in trouble because I appear to be losing my touch.

We may be in trouble Read More »