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Don’t really need to say much more than what’s expresses through the photos below.


What A Lovely Drive!


Well THAT'S Gonna Leave
A Mark in The Dash

Hangin' On For Dear Life!



Actually, she’s not that bad of a driver any more. I was very comfortable with her behind the wheel.....because we WERE in a neighborhood with no lines on the roads and NO other cars in the streets. She even came to a complete stop at all stop signs. And she waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited for ALL of the traffic to pass us by.

Spawnette Is Learning To Drive

I was complaining, and none to quietly, about having to go to meetings where nothing is accomplished because everyone has their own idea of work-environment utopia. (My idea of a work-environment utopia does not involve, well, it doesn’t involve a whole lot of things at all, thank you very much. We’ll discuss Cocoa my pool boy at another time.) Have you notice that those tremendously mind-numbing meetings inevitably end with: “Are there any questions?” Well yes, Frank, you ball-bashing hypocritical hater of women smarter than your third-grade prodigal son, I DO have a question or two.


What exactly is the gestation period of the Tibetan Yak?

If I yell at my kids and neither one listens, did that bear shit in the woods?

How does one “knick knack patty wack” before giving a dog their bone?

Do you give your dog a bone, Frank?

Frank, when did you know your wife was entering menopause and does that bruise on the side of your face, the one that has the approximate circumference of a cast iron skillet, yeah that one? Does it hurt if I touch it like..this?

Has your boss found out you like to wear ladies clothing when you’re not here at the office?

What should I ask the Home Depot guy for when I go to purchase something to fix my mother’s kitchen floor? She wanted us to move her fridge so that she could clean under it before her new one arrived tomorrow so the delivery guy wouldn’t see how dirty it was underneath her old one. She told my kids to just “pull it out, there’s wheels on it” and they tore up her floor. What should I get to fix it?

Did you return that call to your doctor? He said your STD test results were back and he REALLY needed to talk to you.

Is that your wife leaving on the arm of the CIO? She looks good; she lose some weight? She seems happy!

When I hold up these three fingers and you read between the lines, what do you see?





Yes, Frank, I have a couple of questions.





Any Questions?

This past weekend the spawn spent time with FAPOS (acronym for Fat Ass Piece Of Shit) or, as I usually refer to their dad, Satan. He doesn’t live here in town so they only have to see him (oops, did I say that) every other weekend. As he was not in town for their birthdays a week and a half ago, a party was planned for his side of the family to get together and celebrate spawn’s and spawnette’s birthdays. Now before eyes start rolling and heads start shaking, I need to fill you in and let you guys get to know “the other side of the family” before you start to judge.

I. Love. My. Ex.’s. Parents. Big Daddy and Grandma are two of the most wonderful people I know. I never married their only off-spring but to me they are still my family. FAPOS and I split up approximately fourteen years ago and had it not been for his parents, our lives (the spawn and I) would have been extremely difficult. It goes to prove that even though we are well educated, loving, compassionate, and God-fearing people, there’s no guarantee our kids will be. Crap, that means my children still have the capability of turning into serial killers, arsonists, or stock-brokers.

So anywho, back to the party. You already know I’m from the South. Big Daddy is one of three locals left that is actually a native of our “Just This Side Of The Georgia State Line” town. Grandma was born and raised in Alabama. As you can imagine, it’s a totally different dialect when we’re visiting their home. Now, the birthday parties aren’t just for parents and grandparents, no-siree-bob! We invite the whole family: aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, the whole kit n’ kabootle. And can the family arrive just baring gifts? No, they bring along with them any livestock within arms reach as they jump into their cars on their way across town. The finally tally was as follows: one mom, one FAPOS, one grandfather, two grandmothers, three aunts, three uncles, one niece, four nephews, three dogs, three kittens (that were trying to be handed off to any unsuspecting family member), and four baby chickens. Chickens, I say…..CHICKENS! Someone brought frickin’ chickens to my childrens’ birthday celebration!

Hey, at least I knew what we were having for dinner.

All In The Family

CRAP!

I finally have things to talk about other than men in kilts and my dog and WHAT HAPPENS? Meetings! I hate meetings! They take up way too much of my time and for what? Nothing! Nothing ever gets accomplished in a room of people that all have their own opinions, their own idea of what should be done and how to do it. Heck, we all know when they get back to their office they’re gonna do whatever they want to anyway. Stop with the meetings, already; I got things to blog about and you’re wasting my time! I should be in my office with the door closed blogging up a storm but nooooooo, YOU SCHEDULED A MEETING!


You Wanna WHAT??? NOW?!?!?

remuneration GET! !

Well, I posted off my form for the RWA Roadshow which is coming to Perth next month, so am pretty excited about that. The other thing I'm pretty excited about is the strong possibility I'm going to the RWNZ conference in August! My husband truly is a saint.

So, only another four months until I get together again with Amanda and Sara and we can get happily plastered *ahem* I mean do plenty of brainstorming. It will also be great to see all the other ladies I briefly met last year. Hopefully this year I won't be so brain dead and will actually remember to take lots of photos of everyone!

Conferences

Many of us are pet owners but what I’m about to say, most of you will disagree with. My dog is the BEST dog in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. Yea, yea, yea, I know you think your dog is better than mine but – and I say this with all the love I can muster – your dog’s not even close.

When I picked "The Coop" out at the pound and brought him home, I had no idea what he was other than canine. He actually looked part Jack Russell and part Saint Bernard. What he turned out to be is nothing short of perfection.

Okay, those that have met him know he’s a couple steps shy of perfect but who wants a perfect dog anyway. Cooper is smart, funny, goofy, sloppy, dorky, and lovable. He snores, smacks his food, dribbles water all over the floor when he drinks….from the toilet….and only from the toilet…and he clinks his cookie jar if I’m not fast enough getting him fed. He weighs just under a hundred pounds but loves more than anything to spend an evening in your lap. He cuddles and snuggles and has no idea the couch is not meant for him. He stays out of the garbage but loves to lay in a pile of clean clothes….that’s he knocked to the floor….”accidentally”. He adores kids and friends but is leery of strangers. He barks really loud if he's never met you but always from behind my legs. If “mommy” isn’t there Coop is straight out the doggie-door and into the yard where it’s safe.

Yep, no other dog compares to The Super Duper Pooper Cooper; I wouldn’t change him one bit.

Ode To The Poopster



Share where you have traveled to and visited. Anyone up for a road trip?

I Really Need To Get Out More

I just snorked some coffee and it really, really burns.

As you may already know, I am a Google whore.
♪ ♪ I love Google and Google loves me ♪ ♪

Wandering around the vast wastelands found in the O’Googula Nebulous, I ran across a bit of information I thought I’d pass along. In the spirit of Earth Day and Arbor Day, a group of hippified retired sideshow performers have designated May 3rd as “World Naked Gardening Day”.

I don’t know about you, but naked gardening in my neighborhood is truly not something I want to endure. I’m surrounded by post-menopausal or primordial women and deviant, crotchety, dirty, old men. (Except for Jimmy the Gardener who’s hung like a horse and wears REALLY, REALLY tight, white pants.) Do I really want to see Mr. Schnifflehauden three doors down out front gardening in “all his glory” handling his hoe and trimming his bush?

Nope, not on my street.

Celebrate Good Times, COME ON!

I live in what most of you would deem “Small Town America”. Not only does ours embrace a small town atmosphere, but that small town happens to be in the Deep South.

It’s not really as bad as it sounds, at least not most of the time. Standing in line at the grocery store there’s never a stranger in front or behind you. Cars actually come to a stop and let you cross at designated crossing zones; zones that are at random spots along the streets and not at street corners. You get a bit of road rage due to the fact the “engineers” that designed the roadways here in Tallahassee were a group of men from ADDA, the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association. Here is an example of their handiwork:


All in all our “Florida With a Southern Accent” of a town is a mighty great place to live. Unless you enjoy the opera, symphony, or any type of museum that does not include trailer parks, camouflage, or NASCAR. Scanning the local events calendar for ANYthing to do this weekend that would get me out of the house and away from housework I was reminded that cultural activities are on a good day….lacking.

How can this be? Tallahassee is the capital of Florida; they must have some wonderful events not only in the city but in the surrounding areas as well. Let’s take a look at some of our annual events that draw the largest crowds and bring in the most revenue:

Red Hills Horse Trials – This event is a World Cup Qualifier and part of the USEA Gold Cup Series that takes place in our area every March. The Horse Trials features a cross-country course, a variety of formidable obstacles, including water, banks and ditches, which wind through an arboretum. (Translation: Horses carrying riders across the landscape while jumping over stuff.) Raise your hand if you want to go to an outside event just as our mosquito season is beginning to watch a horse run by every 45 minutes. It’s almost as bad as a NASCAR race!

Next we have the Redneck Games. This includes redneck horseshoes (the tossing of toilet seats for accuracy), butt crack contests, armpit music, mud pit belly flops, and bobbin’ for pigs feet. CLASSY!

What?!?! This isn’t the event for you?

How about the Mullet Festival, Mule Days, Rattlesnake Round-Up, or Po’ Boys Annual Crawfish Festival. I’ll tell you this, we never lack for a reason to celebrate with food. And speaking of food, some of my favorite festival foods include anything that fits in a giant vat of oil to be deep-fried, food items derived from pork, and funnel cakes. This weekend I will be celebrating in the “cozy” little town of Havana, Florida (Pronounced HAY-vanna) browsing the vendors and artisans at the Havana Bead, Jewelry, & Art Extravaganza.



WOO HOO and YEEHAW…..wish you were here!








I will say that even our calendar of events doesn’t have something as fabulous as the Roadkill Cook-Off in Marlinton, West Virginia.



Cultural Events In A Small Southern Town

The only problem with taking a hiatus from writing is... well, it can be kind of hard to get back into the swing of it again. Take today for example. I was all fired up to get out really early, take daughter #2 to catch the 7.30 train (ok so that's not really early, but close enough!!) go to the gym, get the shopping and be home before 9.30 to squeeze in a couple of hours writing before taking my son round to his friend's.

So what did I do?

Everything but the writing. Sigh.

Yesterday, just to refresh my mind, I read the last chapter and actually really enjoyed it. Unfortunately it didn't make me want to carry on writing it, just carry on reading it. But until I've put words on document that just isnt going to happen. Partly my reluctance to continue (apart from the fact I'm just a completely lazy moo, of course!) is wondering whether Nocturne will be even the slightest bit interested in my Bite. My wip is located in the same world, and the hero in this one was a minor character in that one.

I've decided that if Nocturne pass, I'm going to revamp the Bite into a full length novel and submit to agents, because despite evidence to the contrary (!!) I am very much in love with all these characters and the various strange plot ideas churning around my mind. All I have to do is work out in which order these events happen, and how on earth my hero and heroine are going to manage their HEA, considering the fate I have in mind for them at the moment...

Procrastination yet again... it's becoming a habit

PIK-A-DOOR

I know, I know, you guys are all getting tired of seeing men in the kilt. Oh wait; this is my blog so tough! Wow, am I a “Little Miss Meanie” or what?!?!

Suck it up and just enjoy, after this weekend my kilt appetite should be suppressed for a little while. At least we hope.

In honor of all the bare-legged and bare-assed men I shall encounter tomorrow, I’d like to share with you a few more sights to sooth our turbulent souls:


Even the famous show how good one can look:

There, isn’t that better? Doesn’t that make you wanna go out and spank a manly bum or two? HEY! You in the Black Watch! “GIT yer ASS over here and lemme TOUCH it!”

I…cannot…wait…to…embarrass…my…kids.

mmmwwwhhhaaaahahaha





Well CRAP!
I was wrong....
not EVERYone looks good in a kilt.


I'm Almost Done....I Swear

daily mail hase a v important news story today about the state of b ritain's young people that i find upsetting. i have called a taxi many times in london and have never received a cabnet. why is this? because i speak in the queen's english (sometims with a kentucky accent for the fun of it, and to meet ladies :D). i do not think she should receive an apology or a refund and besides she has a pretty cabnet so what is the harm done?

i am distrubed and appaleld by this

anderson cougar

good names for kitteh: update

We saw my auntie off to Brisbane this morning, where she's visiting other rellies for a few days before returning to WA, staying with my brother up in Perth before coming back to us for another week. I have to keep reminding myself she's eighty, because she sure doesn't act like it!!

In other news, my husband has finally given in to his baser urges and this afternoon turned up with... ta da... a coffee maker!! As I write he's out in the kitchen playing about with his new toy. I keep hearing it give loud splurting noises so I'm assuming all is well. The only problem is, it looks very high tech and shiny and I'm not at all convinced I'll be able to make the damn thing work. It took us almost five minutes just to find the ON button!

In writerly news, I'm thinking of going to the RWAus Romance Roadshow, a one day mini conference which is coming to Perth next month. It sounds huge fun and will be good to meet other writers in the state!

And happy Birthday Amanda, aka Baby Witch!!!!

Not that I'm Obsessed by Coffee... but...

1. A kilt looks good on anyone.

2. They look even better on men.

3. Men with work boots and heavy socks bunched up.

4. I LIKE wearing mirrors on my shoes.

5. A kilt is probably the most masculine article of clothing a man could wear.

6. You don’t have to worry about tearing out the knees or the bum.

7. You can dress them up or go casual, we really don’t care.

8. They come in any color you could possibly conceive.

9. I quote Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Braveheart when I yell …"Freedom!"

10. Who doesn’t like their man going commando?

11. Going commando and everyone knowing it.

12. A kilt provides free air conditioning on those hot summer days.

13. Women LOVE a man in a kilt.

....crap, that makes fourteen, doesn't it?

Thursday Thirteen - Thirteen Reasons To Love The Kilt

I’m preparing for a weekend of weak knees and lots of drool. No, I’m not getting a root canal first thing Saturday morning. No siree, ladies, I’m getting ready to be the first in line at the gates of the fairgrounds for the Annual Scottish Highland Games and Celtic Festival. My mouth is watering just thinking about all of those men in the kilt. Never been to a festival such as this before? Well let me share a thought or two so that you can judge for yourself whether or not this is the thing for you.


A few hundred men dressed in the kilt indicating their clan or sett by their tartan or “colors”. Now heed me well, a kilt is NOT a skirt. A kilt is a manly-man form of outwear with not much underwear included. A kilt actually comes in different forms such as a great kilt or a pleated kilt. Does it really matter which one a man wears so well as he wears it well? (Who needs Dr. Seuss?) What was I saying? Oh yes, a man and his kilt is a beautiful thing, especially on a windy day. But alas, my friends, we don’t need a “stiff” breeze to brighten our day; we just need to sit our happy bottoms on a blanket in the grass that surrounds the field of athletic competition.
For those that have never had the privilege of experiencing the athleticism of our Celtic men, here are a few of the events taking place this Saturday:

The Tossing of the Caber – A caber is a 16 – 20 foot long log tossed end over end. Yes ladies, the bonny lads bend down to grasp the end of their post, balance it for leverage and heave that pole of theirs with the hopes of it landing perfectly aligned at “twelve o’clock”.


The Hammer Throw – Metal ball attached to a pole weighing 16 pounds or 22 pounds depending on whether or not they’re a heavyweight or light-man. They will start off s-l-o-w-l-y, spinning faster and faster to gain momentum then TOSS that hammer with everything they got.

We also have The Weight for Height Toss, The Weight for Distance Toss, and The Sheaf Toss – all of these events involve swinging and swaying to gather force and ending with the release of their piece of equipment throwing with all of their might be it straight up or straight out; who cares?!?!


What is a sheaf, you ask? Really girls, who cares when this is the view we get? With all of the bending down and spinning around you will soon become an expert on how a kilt is “properly” worn. Thank goodness they serve up cold beverages early ‘cause it’s gonna take a lot to cool my ass down! Those cold beverages one consumes are also helpful when one wants to take a guilt-free stroll through the vendors and artisans. I tend to buy A LOT of hand-crafted jewelry this time of year.



(A sheaf is a burlap bag filled with hay that weighs 16 – 20 pounds and is tossed over a bar with a pitchfork. The highest toss wins.)

I Spy.......

DOSE : 2.5 mg rectal 5-MeO-AMT (liquid)
smoked Cannabis
BODY WEIGHT : 200 lb

Timing and shit...

T+ 0:00 - 2.5mg 5-meo-amt administered rectally
T+ 0:10 - Gastrointestinal disturbances hit, drugs is expelled from body
T+ 0:15 - Nausea present, pupils size of pinpricks
T+ 0:20 - Few hits of high grade marijuana smoked to ease nausea, and worked like a charm
T+ 0:30 - Nice mental clarity effects noticed, mild visualizations present with ability to increase intensity of if focused on
T+ 0:40 - Seem to have hit the plateau.

I had recently purchased 300 mg of 5-meo-amt powder from an online retailer, and as soon as the package came in the mail, I was eager to try it. The substance came in a tiny, almost beaker-ish 'bottle' of you will, about an inch tall and a circumference of about 1 cm. It was marked with numerous poison warnings and the like, and ironically, the word 'poison' was actually misspelled in one of them. Go figure.

The bottle was placed inside an envelope, placed inside a fed ex bag, placed inside another bag and another and so on about 4 times. I felt already as if I was in one of those 'cartoon' experiences where someone receives a package inside of a package inside of a package just to get something tiny.

I toyed around with the substance for a few days in powder form, and in doing so accidentally ingested an estimated 15 mg. Needless to say, I went pretty much insane over that one, so in the spirit of being careful, I decided to use the water-dosing method.

I took the 300 mg of powder and mixed it with 60 ml of water, to give it a potency of 5mg/ml. I figured this dose was about right to be considered one 'hit.' Also, taking into the account the 25 mg or so I had already taken of the substance, I was giving myself nice 'padding' in case of an accidental overdose or some other unexpected dose-dependant emergency.

After a few days, I wanted to try to find a quicker way of ingestion than oral or insufflated, being as each takes roughly three hours to kick in. I decided I would try an experiment; given that our colon is the last organ in our digestive system and therefore absorbs things rather quickly, would it absorb a drug such as this? If so, how quickly? Would the side effects be lessened to any extent? I decided to find out.

So, as gross as it may sound to some, I took 1/2 a ml of the substance, and using a 'dropper,' administered the 5-meo-amt rectally. I didn't feel much at first; I simply felt like I needed to use the restroom, but knew I couldn't so that the substance could be properly absorbed.

When you feel this way, it's amazing how slowly time goes by. By 10 minutes I could already feel the drug coming on with its alteration of the digestive system. As anyone who's used this before knows, 5-meo-amt is known to cause nausea and diarrhea as well as other gastric disturbances. This time seemed to be no exception.



With that, I decided to empty myself of the substance and whatever followed it, and in the process of doing so, noticed the drug coming on quite intensely. The wallpaper in my bathroom started to come alive, and it felt as though I was surrounded by the ocean.

I started feeling quite nauseated, so I layed down on the bathroom floor for a while to feel better. I stared at the ceiling and it began shrinking and expanding in different places, and the walls seemed to be dancing to the beat of an unknown drum. I felt as though I was deep underwater, but once again, in one of those cartoony ways. Underwater was a fucking happening place to be.

After fighting off the nausea with a few hits of some high grade marijuana, I felt very clear headed and definitely in a trippy kind of mood. Nothing incredibly intense, but very pleasurable nonetheless. Visuals are, at this dosage, slightly there, but if you want to see them you can enhance them if they are focused on.



All in all I am very surprised at how efficient this 'odd' method of ingestion seems to be. Instead of taking upwards of 3 hours via the oral route, the rectal route provided a nice trippy state by the half hour mark. And to think, I only took half a hit, and only held it in for 10 minutes or so...

I personally would recommend extreme caution with this dosing method. You will be surprised how quickly the drug starts to overtake you, and even if your dosage is accurate, there is as yet unknown to me any way of knowing how quickly your colon absorbs the 5-meo-amt, or whether or not you have completely absorbed the dosage that you have taken before expelling it. I wonder what might have happened with me if I had held my dosage for the first half hour... I could have been in store for some fairly intense tripping. If you decide to try this method, I would advise you to be extremely careful, and if things start getting out of hand, flush the drug out of your system immediately! Better safe than sorry!

Happy travels!

rectal administration of liquid form

i have been working on my thoughts of the season for a long time to put in my upcoming book, "thoughts about the season by adam schefter", which is why i have had no time for updating this internets website for the readers and the people (this is probably why i am not even listed in the time magazine most influential persons poll ;_;) so i'd like to give you, the reader a preview now.


LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!111 18 AND 1 MORE LIKE 18 AND FUK U!!! hahaha bardy man what can u do about the things. at least you didn't have to win and have fellatio relations with bill simmons.

BTW S IMMONS U B EEN HIDING FROM ME??? YOU KNOW OUR BET. I GET TO "JARED LETO IN FIGHT CLUB" YR ASS. STOP FUCKIN ROUND AND COME OVER. I'VE BEEN WANTING TO DO THIS FOR YEARS AND YEARS.

a+++++++++++++ maybe the broncos will wiin inspriration from this story of triumphs?

my thoughts about the season

PLUS

EQUALS
OF


Sweet Baby Jesus, is reality TV awesome OR WHAT?!?!?

Nothin' But a Good Time



hai bros hows it been making :D

THE COMBINGINGS OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS!!1111111

I’m back from the living dead. At least it feels that way. For the last two weeks it’s been one thing or another.

The first week in April I was hog-tied and shipped to the Land O’Mickey for training. Training in Orlando? That must have been great! What? Your hotel was AT A MALL???? Awesome!

Nope, not awesome, I didn’t get to shop much and the one time I made it to the mall, I was…and I’m not afraid to say this…. too tired to shop. I just wanted to hit the food court, grab a gyros, hork it down, and get back to my room for peace and quiet. No T.V., no music, no group of grown men trying to out-do the next with some big, grand idea of how we should go about saving the world in the event of a hurricane. (I forgot to mention I was in training for Hurricane Preparedness. “Target Capabilities: A Companion to the National Preparedness Guidelines” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.) Can I tell you how awesome and awe inspiring government agencies are? My manual was 590 pages thick. That 590 pages, people! I can see it all now:

Hurricane Cooper, a category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, has just decimated a swath of land from Miami, up through Orlando, and exiting the State of Florida via Tampa Bay. Millions are left homeless, injured, with nowhere to go as designated shelter locations have been leveled and the necessity of Special Needs Shelters is not being met; patients are being transported out of state. A small sub-division just outside of Ft. Lauderdale has been totally and completely cut of from civilization for six days. Help finally arrives. A transport carrying water, food, and medical supplies has breached the natural barrier of palm trees and homes destroyed by the storm. Little Ms. Heffelfinger runs to the truck on her spindly, arthritic legs sobbing for joy that help has found this tiny isolated neighborhood. “Please, we need water; we haven’t had any fresh water in four days! Thank you, thank you, oh God bless you all!”

She is greeted with this:

“Step away from the vehicle, ma’am. We are required to follow standard operating procedures here. I repeat, step away from the vehicle. We must find and locate what exactly our SOP is for this situation and are required to reference this manual. Return to the wreckage you now call home and we will be with you as soon as possible.”

Yeah, Mrs. Heffelfinger will really appreciate that. Bet she has an eighteen inch sawed-off Browning stuck down the back of her apron and is ready to take our entire team out for one bottle of water.

Thanks guys, great manual!

Once the training was over we headed back to Tallahassee arriving home a little after nine Wednesday evening. I grabbed spawnette, threw her into the truck and we drove back to central Florida for a long weekend with my sister. (Spawn was at the beach with his buddy for spring break so it was mommy-daughter time for me.) As we arrived so very late into the evening and I was still a little wired from the pot and a half of coffee I drank to wash down the no-dose, I really needed a shower to wash away that icky travel glaze one gets from riding in a car too long. I jumped into the shower at 2:16 a.m., quickly washed off, and by 2:31 was totally and completely covered from my chin down, in a red bumpy rash. It was NASTY!!! Nasty and itchy! What the hell was this? I’d never in my life had anything so gross...except for maybe that one time, when I had what looked like thousands of mosquito bites along with ringworm after being in the field too long right after Charlie. That was really gross. I mean worms? Under the skin? EEWWWW…Anyway, my sister and I had wanted to take the collective spawn to the beach, hang out by the pool, and just have a relaxing weekend. Nope, not gonna happen. Every time I so much as walk into the sun the rash raised it’s ugly head swelling three times its size and burning my tender, oh so fair skin. I – was – lovely! Thank goodness my sister has a pool and didn’t mind me swimming after dark. But you know what? The pool light wasn’t working and it’s really kinda scary swimming in a dark pool and not being able to see what’s swimming with you below the surface.

Oh well, we had a great time hanging out and eating entirely too much. Hey, one has to compensate for disappointment, you know?

Back to work last Monday preparing for a couple more days of hurricane preparedness. We were “gifted” with a new tracking system and guess what else! That’s right, folks, no training! Just another fun-filled time courtesy of different government entity! YEAH POLITICS!

Wednesday...last week...that tiny little ol’ cough my niece and brother-in-law had while spawnette and I were visiting? It wasn’t little and it wasn’t just a cough. It was a “lay your miserable ass down on the couch because you won’t be moving for the next four days” cough. I think I was able to gather enough strength to pee two times in the four days I was knocked flat on my padoobies. But I think I lost about three pounds so that’s cool, right?

And to top it all of, yesterday afternoon while I was hacking, yanking, and slaughtering the ivy that’s trying to mate with my brick house, I found an infestation of microscopic, itty-bitty, I couldn’t take a picture because my camera isn’t cool enough bugs. They’re red, tick-shaped (I freaked out because I thought they were ticks at first) and they leave a red smear behind when you squish ‘em. I was outside freaking thinking “GOSH….how much more do I need to clean here people???? I’m not that dirty but now I got these?!?!? Come on….I’m tired......HOLY CRAP ALL THE WINDOWS ARE OPEN AND THEY CAN WALK RIGHT THROUGH THE SCREENS!!!!!”
Found out it isn’t just me. They are e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. Home Depot and Lowe’s both had record sales this weekend from people all over town trying to kill these swarming yet oddly pretty mites. Fairly certain they're clover mites which don't bite and should be gone sometime soon. Aren’t they pretty? (That’s a dime, by the way)


So…….how was YOUR week?

She's.....ALIVE

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (not quite anyway) but it feels like it as I haven't been able to get online nearly as much as I should for my health! My lovely auntie is visiting from the UK today, so of course I had to make the house presentable. The only trouble is once you start down that dangerous road, it's never ending!!

Anyway, finally got it up to scratch after enlisting the assitance of two of the offspring and one darling husband. It's been six years since she's been over, so we're all looking forward to seeing her - but it does mean I won't be able to hop on the computer much over the next few days to check out what everyone's been up to. Friday afternoon and I'll definitely be there!!

(did I mention the writing... um, no I didn't... well, the good news is I think I've finally cracked the sluggy block I had. The not so good news is I have to wait nearly a week before I can get back to it!!)

Still Kicking

1. Palmetto Bugs (They fly and can grow up to two inches long...look how BIG that sucker is!)

2. Dinner plate sized mosquitoes

3. Love Bug Season

4. Tourists

5. Spring Break

6. Hurricanes

7. Rednecks (This is actually my brother “bobbin’ for pigs feet”)

8. Humidity so thick you can cut it with a knife

9. Lightning Alley (Area between Tampa and Orlando)

10. The Shell Outlet

11. Retirees

12. Yucky, stiff grass

13. Palmetto Bugs (I have to list these guys twice!!!!)




Thursday Thirteen - Thirteen Reasons We Love To Hate Florida

Been away for training - getting ready for the up and coming hurricane season. Will fill you in soon!

Under Construction

Was I a happy bunny when I read this report on the BBC News website. Apparently, research suggests that a cup of coffee a day protects the vital blood brain barrier against attack by cholesterol. High levels of cholesterol, in case you wanted to know, can make this barrier leaky. But I'm not going there... where I'm going is here. Coffee is good for you!!!

So now whenever I buy a takeaway latte I can forego my pangs of guilt and greed, and instead drink it with pride, in public, because it's not just making me wobbly around the middle it's protecting my brain!!!

Coffee Lovers Alert

I'm guest blogging today over at the fabulous Shelley Munro's blog, on the subject of Adventures of an Aspiring Romance Writer! If you have a moment I would love for you to pop over and say hi! Shelley is generously giving away a download of her first Middlemarch Mates books, Scarlet Woman, to one lucky commenter. Hope to see you there!

Guest Blogging Today!