Daily Dose

Packing Tape: How Much Is Too Much?

When I mail a box, I tend to use a lot of packing tape. I use some strips, all the way across the spot where the two flaps meet. Then, depending on how that looks, I probably add a couple more strips in the middle of each flap — all the way across the box.

Then, I will quite often print the to/from addresses on a half sheet of white printer paper, lay that down on the proper spot on the box, and use long strips of tape to tape it down. End to end or side to side, depending on the box itself.

I’ll pop a couple of strips of tape on the bottom of the box and call it done.

I used to think that was a lot of tape — until I started getting packages from The Fake Husband and Sassymonkey.

I’m guessing it’s The Fake Husband who is doing the packing of the packages but I don’t really know that for sure. Just a hunch.

Those wacky Canadians (or whichever wacky Canadian is packing those boxes) use a helluva lot of tape on their boxes.

The first time I really noticed it was when they sent me the Kotex machine. I figured the huge amount of tape was related to the weight of the box. More tape on a heavy box to help keep it all together and safe.

But no. It wasn’t the weight of the machine. I’ve received several more boxes from The Fake Husband and Sassymonkey and pretty much all of them have been LOADED with tape. So much tape that I can’t even get a steak knife through the tape on the first pass. I’ve got to SAW through the layers of tape. And I can’t just saw through in one place, I’ve got to saw through the tape in several places or the box WILL NOT OPEN.

It’s a fascinating thing to see and I wish I’d thought to take some photos or pictures when the last heavily taped box arrived. It would have been extra fun to watch Skeeter Bess watch me try to get the damn tape off of the box. She was fascinated and tried to help, without much success.

Which should tell you something.

If Skeeter Bess cannot get a box open… yea, that’s a lot of tape.

How do you tape up a box to ship? How much tape do you use?

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Post-Holiday Blues

It’s not me who has them. Not really. It’s the dog.

She doesn’t like it when we both work all day. She wants us both in the bedroom, preferably without our computers (most of the time), reading books — giving her belly rubs — giving her treats — just available to pay attention to her, should she choose to want it.

It’s bloody hard to get work done when you have a 45lb dog tugging on your sleeve while you type. Or barking at you when you’re at your desk because she wants you in the bedroom with her (and with TW.)

The first work day of 2013 has been… difficult. To say the least.

Tomorrow will be better, won’t it?

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221 Books in 2012

I beat last year’s total by 21 books. I’m a little surprised, or I was until I flipped through my year of posts. The travel guides helped, since I read almost nothing the entire month I was in Hawaii meeting JMP. The graphic novels helped, too.

Here’s the breakdown:

Audiobooks: 13 (seemed like more!)
Graphic Novels: 19 (seemed like more!)
Non-fiction: 54
YA: 62
Books I Hated: 1 (but, this is big –I quit a good dozen books this year, a big change from previous years.)
Books I Loved: 91

For the challenges:

* I read all of the Cybils Shortlist books.
* I didn’t read a single Nancy Drew. (Gah!)
* I read books three about adoption, but only two were those I specifically read because I knew they were about adoption and would be great for the adoption challenge.
* I read 8 steampunk (I could have sworn there were more… I wonder if I mis-tagged?)
* I really need to read more queer books. 22 is a lot better than 6, so I shouldn’t beatmyself up … still… it shouldn’t be this hard.
* From the Stacks? hahaha. Three, that I didn’t buy in 2012. Sheesh.

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A Fake Readathon Day

The kids are gone, all five of them, and it’s quiet now. I’m not quite ready to say it’s too quiet, that will happen sometime tomorrow. Except, we’re going to celebrate the quiet and regroup from the holiday mayhem with a fake readathon day.

We stopped at Fresh Market this evening and spent too much on specialty junk food, (mmmm cheese straws), and we’ve got stacks of library books to read. We’re not getting dressed tomorrow and we’re going to lay in bed with books (and the darn dog) and just read — and nap — and take long, hot baths.

This seems like a really good way to end a fun, but very loud, holiday and keep the “gosh, it’s quiet… too quiet” thoughts away.

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Hilah and BlogHerTV in Real Life

When I saw Hilah’s recipe for Gougeres aka cheese puffs, I knew I had to try and make them. Then, I got the brilliant idea that Chris and I would make them together because he loves Hilah as much as I do. So… we did.

Here’s Hilah’s video, if you haven’t seen it.

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

And you can see our version, in several parts because I’m no video production person and it’s Christmas Eve and I don’t have time to figure out how to turn all of my videos into one big video, lol.

The most important thing for you to know is that these were a huge hit with all 11 people in the house — and one dog.

Also, Chris’s balls are bigger than Hilah’s so it only made about 16 balls instead of the 30 Hilah said it would make. We liked them this size, but we’ll have to double the recipe in the future because there were NOT enough.

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Couponing Fun: How Much Did I Spend?

I ran into Dominicks (which is a Safeway brand store) while TW was getting her hair cut. I used no paper coupons, just the store’s savings card offers that I pre-loaded before I went to the store.

Here’s what I bought:

$60 worth of iTunes gift cards (2 3 card multi-packs)
1 gallon of 1% milk
1 quart of coconut milk eggnog
1 pint of whole milk
2lb block of sharp cheddar cheese (not from the deli, just from the dairy case)
1 bag of Lays potato chips
1 case of Mountain Dew
1 case of Pepsi

How much do you think I spent?

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Prepared?

It’s a week til Christmas — I’m not ready.

Four days til Michelle arrives — I can’t wait, but I’m not ready.

Five days til Christopher arrives — I can’t wait, but I’m not ready.

The cleaning ladies come tomorrow — Yay, but the house isn’t ready.

Skeeter has her last puppy class, a puppy pool party, on Thursday — Cool but I’d like to skip it in favor of getting ready for kids and Christmas.

TW fed her mom the leftover Chinese food that made me sick yesterday — I’m definitely not prepared for what might happen in a couple of hours because of that.

I’d better get my ass up out of this chair and prepare for SOMETHING.

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Poop & Barf

Literally.

I am never eating Chinese food again. Ever.

I swear it.

There’s something wrong when I’m the one who gets sick when TW is the one who hasn’t held onto ANY food for more than 30 minutes in months.

Excuse me while I go back to bed and moan some more. TW loves it when I do that.

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My Mom, Barbie and Me

When I was a kid, I liked Barbie. I liked her a lot and I wanted the Dream House and the corvette and the airplane (I really had a thing for Barbie as stewardess, don’t ask me why.) I didn’t get the Dream House or the corvette or the airplane. My mom was soooo mean.

Except she wasn’t mean at all.

She made me tons of Barbie clothes — knitted or crocheted or on the sewing machine. And, while I didn’t have the Dream House, I did have a Barbie house/carrying case combo that I loved. It was the most awesome thing EVER, even though I still kind of coveted other girls’ Dream Houses.

Which is why when I had kids, they had the corvette. And the camper. And the plane. And some version of the Dream House.

They did not have homemade clothes because I was not that kind of mom. Obviously.

I think I had it better.

My house was portable, the Dream House is totally not portable.

I had just enough Barbie paraphernalia that it was fun to play with and easy to store inside of the special Barbie house/case combo. My girls had so much that the Barbie stuff was everywhere and it was hard to find the pieces you wanted, when you wanted them.

My mom was right. I was totally not right.

So when mom told me her granddaughter, Haley, wanted a Rapunzel Barbie for Christmas — I smiled.

When mom told me she was getting back into the Barbie clothes making “business” — I smiled. (And I laughed out loud when she kind of ranted about how many different patterns there are for Barbie clothes now. lol The internet is a glorious place that makes life very complicated for Barbie clothes-makers, and everyone else.)

When mom posted a photo of a Barbie with a handmade dress on her Facebook wall and said she had Barbie fever and needed shoes, and purses, and a stand and a case — I did more than smile and laugh. I went online and tracked down the Barbie house/case that I had (and loved) when I was a kid and sent it to her.

No Dream House for my mom, she deserves the best and the 1968 Mod Family House & Case is the best.

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