But wait, there's still more

While I was in bed and not sleeping I was watching an odd assortment of late night programming. The paid advertising shows, which are thirty minute commercials, are incredible. They have to employ a lot of people. I started scanning the crowds and switching from channel to channel to see if I saw any repeats in the audiences. This leaves you little time to actually understand what they are pitching but it makes the time just scoot by. They must make some sort of profit or why would they advertise so much.

I can't say which is my favorite, Ron Popiel or some bimbo/moron used-to-be-a-child-actress/actor selling exercise equipment. It's nice to know they are still working albeit 3:00 am. I think Hillary Clinton is selling something but I could have been hallucinating then.

Now the actual commercials aren't any better. I'm naive enough to be shocked at the Girls Gone Stupid videos you can purchase--all with a money back guarantee. Just what does that guarantee read like? So do they charge you credit card with "College sluts doing their damnedest not to study" or is it something generic like "education videos"? When your wife mentions an odd charge do you fess up or just scream Identity Theft!?

The one for hair plugs takes the Golden Globe for stupidity. They show a few before and after shots and the last one is of guy with a quarter sized mole on his face stating how much this new hair has done for his self esteem. Self esteem? Did he think people stared at him because of this balding head? Hell no. They were waiting to be introduced to that thing on this face.

Listen, most women don't care a hoot if you're bald but things hanging off your face, whew, that's another matter. If it's big enough to have it's own gravity take care of it. I think there is an infomercial for that very thing.

Open wide

Well, I'm sitting up and taking nourishment. Darling husband is whiz-bang at heating things in the microwave and more than willing to run out and get me anything I need. Have to pass on a few things right yet but the soup has been a godsend. Trader Joe's makes this cream of tomato in box that is great so was pleased he could get me a cup warmed.

What made me feel better? I succumbed to marketing and husband snagged me some Mucinex, well generic version, and it seemed to work quite well. I can never tell whether it's the cold taking it's course or it actually does something to help. My dad used to say, "To get over a cold it takes a week unless you go to the Dr and then it takes 7 days." I didn't laugh at that until I got a lot older.

Since I've caught up on all the old movies I can handle I think I'll get up and "blow the stink off of me" which is another Dad wisdom. He was sure if you got up you'd feel better which in most cases that works. I was stoic when it came to work. Don't get me wrong if I was contagious I stayed away but if I was still working I would not be languishing in bed. Ah, another early-retirement benny.

All this resting got me thinking of some of my childhood illness, which because I was Asthmatic were numerous. Once, when I had some ear-infected-snotty-nose-cough type of illness I awoke in the middle of the night crying. My dad was the first one there with the cough medicine and poured me a big old spoon full without turning on the light. Bleck! It was sweet oil something that was put in your ear if you had an ear ache and unfortunately the same size bottle as the cough medicine. It was a long time before I cried in the middle of the night again. Being a parent is difficult, especially at four-in-the-morning. Thanks, Gene.

Shhhhh, she's resting

Crap! I've got a cold. I think the last cold was when I came back from Indiana last May and that was because we spent so much time around smokers. This seems to be a regular, get a fever, sneeze, cough and feel crummy for five days cold.

A friend said, "take Zicam, it is a miracle." Well it's a miracle I can stake the stuff. I opted for the tablet that melts in your mouth. Ugh. Taste like sucking on a drain pipe. Dan says he never saw anything get so sick so quick so I guess we can stop taking the Zicam. Good it made my tongue feel like it had a little furry coat on that tasted like some old ABC* cherry gum.

Lil bird, who just had the same stuff says, "Musinex is the best!" My sister swears by Theriflu. I'd love to soak in a blistering hot bath but with my recent episode with dry skin, that's out. I think I'll just stick to the home remedies. Rest, lots of fluids, chicken soup and hot lemon water with honey. If that doesn't work, a slug or two of brandy would be just fine. Can't hardly take too much; you pass out before you overdose.

If you all aren't sick you can struggle on over to Peanut Butter Étouffee. We are having a food challenge.

*ABC- already been chewed

Tools for a healthier life

Suffering from dry skin this time a year isn't real life threatening but it sure is uncomfortable. After a rather irritating weekend I decided to check some websites for info. I love the Mayo Clinic site, so informative and very easy to find things. Low and behold, they have a section on dry skin.

The causes are what you would think and yes, I take blistering hot showers so that will have to stop. Another good point they made was even in winter it's easy to get dehydrated so remember, drink your water. Water seems to be the key in almost everything. Could be our bodies are mostly water, mine has it's share of fat but it's good to be reminded to drink more.

So I'm off to the store to find some of the creams they recommend and then into a nice lukewarm bath. Ahhh, relief at last.

Only one year ago

This blog is more than a year old so I was looking back to last January and I had only one post. It was about our remodel of bathroom number one and the agony of having only one functioning bathroom. Spoiled, really spoiled.

It seems amazing that it's been a year since that bath was finished, time does move forward. Now I find it difficult to remember the old bath with it's clunky dark shower and the horrible ugly vinyl flooring, ugh, so seventies.

There are a few projects still left to be done, paint the living room, flooring in my office and the guest bedroom and I must think of something fun to do in there. Darling husband has been busy installing a new heater and A/C and the heater came in the nick of time but I have little to do with these jobs. I've lost the momentum needed to finish these projects. I need some house guests to make me more organized. Maybe I could rent out the front bedroom? I do have two bathrooms, now.

Life sized at the Getty Center

My life at the Getty has become so much busier now that I'm giving tours but for the rest of the month I'll be happy to be inside. It's damn cold up on the hill right now and last Wednesday we had thunder, rain, hail and a double rainbow.

Inside this month we have a wonderful experience for visitors. Clara. She is a life size painting by Jean-Baptiste Oudrey of a rhinoceros and she is getting a spa treatment in the East Art Information room. Her treatment consists of some fancy cleaning and retouching done by one of the conservators, Mark. He does his work on display but on Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:00 he answers questions from the crowd.

If you're in town before the end of January do drop by and see Clara and Mark. If you can't make it then plan to come in May when she'll be on display with others in the menagerie.

This is a test. If it were a real emergency …

Last night was girl's night out. Darling husband was at sweet daughter's house getting ready to make a new roof so a lady friend and myself had dinner and went to the picture show. When over it was late, for us, but since she is single said what the hey to a cup of tea at my house. She left after 11:00 and since there was zip on the TV I did some writing.

Very silent house except the clinking of the keyboard so you could hear any little noise the house makes. Just me and Buddy.

Let's have a bit of back-story here. We have a Carbon Dioxide detector that has been relegated to the garage. Seems as though the "chirps" it makes ever now and again makes the terrier certifiable. He will actually climb up in your lap, no matter where you are--note to self: close the bathroom door all the way--and quiver like the hounds of hell are pursuing him. We've had this problem before and that is why the current detector is out of his earshot, or so I thought.

Buddy was the first to hear the chirp and I should have known. Usually if you are up late he just heads off to bed. "See ya in the morning, don't forget to lockup." He was right next to my chair when I heard the detector hit the high note again but it is always one of the those, "Did I hear something?"

The next time it was unmistakable, at least for the dog because all of his 27 lbs leaped into my arms and refused to get down. With some soothing I convinced him off my keyboard and I was out to the garage. I yanked the detector from it's plug and showed Buddy. "See, I've slayed your dragon my great protector, now go to bed." Which he did until the damn thing set off again. Seems like I forgot to also pull the battery. Now there was nothing else to do with except shut down the computer and be off to bed where he slept closer to me than ever.

Some of you safety people are saying, "How could you disabled the detector; maybe there was actually a problem?" Not to worry, I have another one and it said on the case, chirpping every three minutes is a malfunction. It's off to Lowes this morning to buy a new one.

Who knows what that noise means to him. It is loud but not as ear piercing as the actual alarm. It's constant but only every three minutes when it's in the malfunction mode. Well at least we don't have to worry about not hearing the alert, Buddy will keep us safe long before the carbon monoxide gets us.

Look Ma, no cavities!

Most regular readers know Buddy, the wire-haired terrorists. He's our eleven-year-old darling doggy and after a trip to the vet last November he was told by Dr Ron to lose a few pounds, three to be exact. Now this is not to say he's fat, just a tad over his fighting weight. So we stopped with all the "people food," which we thought was a good way to diet. Buddy didn't agree but us being the dutiful pet parents that we are we stuck with this new regimen.

Yesterday Buddy had an appointment to have his teeth cleaned. This was his first time. We've never had a dog with dental problems so why subject him was my thought. Anyway he did just fine, not a bad tooth in the lot and even had a blood test to say his insides were just as good.

And how did the diet work, she asks? Buddy proudly jumped on the scale and as the number rose my heart sank. He did not lose one ounce, not one. Of course he didn't gain anything, that would have been pure agony, but he really hasn't been eating anything close to what he did before November. Either this mutt is ordering pizza while we are away or we just don't understand how much to feed a dog. Back to the drawing board on this one. Poor Buddy.

No more troops

You have a bucket of water
You put your fist in the water
You remove your fist--
Were you ever there?

How's adding twenty thousand more fists going to ensure victory?

You may write President Bush.

You may have noticed

A few things have changed but not the author. Darling Blogger had a fit and we had to all change to the new version. I thought it time to do a few updates but nothing radical. The new template has a bit different way of handling the archive but everything else seems the same.

Hey, a girl has to change here style once in a while.

Simi Valley, one big walk-in cooler

It's not only windy, that's a given these days but it cold. Brrrrrr, freezing cold. Dan brought the milk in from the market and asked if I wanted it in the refrigerator. Funny question you think? No, the 'fridge was 39 degrees and outside temp was 40. I don't even want to guess at the wind chill temp. Making soup today.

How creative were you today?

Just in case you thought your neighbors were sane this guy proves you wrong. Here's what they might be doing.

Butt-painting

Seems as though the VA board of education fired this teacher. I can't say I enjoy his art but you have to give him points for creativity.

What does peace look like?

So I heard him and can't believe he'd want to send more troops there. We do have to leave someday and I sure don't see crowds of people throwing flowers, tearfully waving goodbye, thanking us. And are we trying to shame Syria and Iran into help stabilizing the region? They couldn't care less about something stable. Wouldn't you think they would be tired of all this? I suppose it has become a way of life, or death for so many of those poor Iraqis.

More troops, buckets more money and what will we get? More dead--that is all--and when we leave there the tide will rush in. We can not change something that has been going on for 1500 years.

If you think the Iraqi government is magically going to step-up and finally create some safe areas please volunteer and go over and help them. Just let our young people come home; alive.

Mother Blogger

Blogger is pretty much making my blog life crazy. Sheesh! Is anyone else having this much trouble? Can't connect, photos don't load, and the worst insult--can't make a comment on a blog. How can I live?

It does seem to be back up and running this morning so a quick rant because I am a busy retiree. With the holdiay past I'm now into a different more relaxed but still busy mode. And because I'm trying to give my spleen a rest I'll try not to be too frustrated with Blogger today and state that I have a few things to be thankful for.

The wind has subsided, notice I didn't say stop because it will be back this Friday. It has been the the worst year that I can remember and I've live in this house since '73. Give us some rain, please. So until the wind comes back I will savor the lovely California winter.

He's back

I don't want to scare lil bird since this is her car and we just garage/tinker/and drive on Sundays and holidays of obligation but Dan took it to the garage this morning. Not any garage, Christian Auto Repair and it's back in business after a few years hiatus. Shawn and his son Jason have re-opened their business and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Dan has been trying to find the time to do a bit of rear end swapping but what with the holidays, and the install of a friend's heater/AC and our upcoming install of the same plus a water heater, he just hasn't gotten to it. Shawn to the rescue. And just as a side note, there are only a few that Dan trust with his cars, he'd rather do the work himself. If he let's someone else turn a wrench you know they've got to be good.

We're glad he's back in business because he's one of those trustworthy mechanics that actually knows how to fix cars and now he's passing on this knowledge to his son and when the time comes, to the grandson, too. Dan got over there super quick because today's the first day of business and once people in town know he's back, well, there could be a wait.

Jason and Shawn, good luck with your new venture.

No handicapped people here

We were one of four hosts for a New Year's Eve progressive dinner and had a houseful for the salad course. I didn't get to make anything fancy, it would have been impossible for 25, but did have an interesting salad bar. What was the biggest hit at my stop? The warm spiced apple cider. It was a chilly evening.

One of the guests is a very talented blind woman. She was a guest at the house a while ago when I was living in Bakersfield and knew right away we had remodeled. She tapped the floor and said she noticed we'd changed from carpet to tile. I found this amazing but she is an amazing person. She works and plays the violin and is always so cheery. She also lives alone, cooks for herself and friends, and swims in her backyard pool. I would never think of calling her handicapped. It's us that are at times.

Baby it's cold inside

Our darling Buddy was cold this morning and I can't say I blame him.



Though I did get him to at least poke his nose out to say Happy New Year!