Another Scary Drive - Salt River Canyon

I had lots of other cool images but turns out my film camera was worn out :( I've got nothing.

It used to be this was the only route through Northern AZ to Phoenix. It was terrifying!

Why bother?

We went to Decorah for the weekend. We were making it a combo anniversary/v-day thing. There isn't as much to do in Decorah as I thought so we got done shopping etc early and our dinner reservation wasn't until 7 pm.

We decided to go out to a new little restaurant called la dolce vita. It was a veer to the left death ride out there but it was very pretty. Despite it's loveliness we only had a drink and the spring rolls which to my dismay were cold.

We headed back into town and decided to see if we could eat early. It was a no-go. The hostess even told us it would be better if we could come later than our reservation. We drove back downtown in search of more appetizers and had no luck. We did have another drink at a very loud college bar. I believe I am officially old!

We got back out to the restaurant and didn't get seated til probably 730. Our crab cake (tasty but overly fried) arrived in a timely manner as did our soups and salad. At 8:10 we began to wonder where the F*** our food was. People that had come in after us were getting seated and getting their food! We finally got our waitress attention and she told us it would be 2 min. We pressed her a little, she pointed to the kitchen and said "that's how they do it". Then told us it would be free. We finally got our food at 8:55. My prime rib was terrible and tasteless and you could hear my baked potato when I cut it. Kurt said his was pretty good but we were both exhausted by 9. We couldn't get our waitress's attention again so we left what little cash we had for a tip and walked out.

We got back to the hotel and it was freezing. Did I mention our table was directly in front of the door to the outside? Kurt had his coat on the entire time. I ended up with my swishy pants on huddled under the covers. We were lights out by 9:45!

Today, we went to the Vesterhiem Museum. I haven't been there since I was a kid. It's 4 floors of the Norwegian American story. It was pretty interesting. There were some really cool chairs there that are carved out of a single log. Of hand I can't remember what they're called but now I want one! There was also lots of pretty silver jewelery. Silver is a huge part of the regional costumes of Norway.

Overall it was nice to be together with no kids and no dog, but it wasn't exactly the weekend romp I had in mind!

Octuplet F**k Up

Ok I'm officially annoyed. I know this isn't news to anyone but here's what's set me off today:



It's that Nadya Suleman - The mother of 14 via IVF. She's on the Today Show with Ann Curry. 1st she looks like Angelina Jolie - so I guess we know who'll be playing her in the movie. 2nd - one of her reasons for having her children is she had a lonely and dysfunctional childhood. SHE LIVES WITH HER PARENTS!!! Weren't they part of her dysfunctional childhood? Ergo.....

How is she going to feed them? How is she going to clothe them? Maybe TLC will step in and help.

IVF can be up to $20k a cycle. She's had at least 6 rounds - she's unemployed. Who's paying for this? Me? The taxpayers? If I'm spending $ on IVF it damn well better result in ME having a newborn! Ugh!

Beware of Barnes and Noble

This summer they changed their return policy. An original receipt is only good for 14 days and then only on certain items. A GIFT receipt is good for 60 days. So ALWAYS get a gift receipt. An original receipt is NOT AS GOOD AS A GIFT RECEIPT. They have an extensive 2 part policy on the back of their receipts which excludes items such as:

• puzzle stow and go ( the reason for this warning)
• book ends
• coffee cups
• stationery
• book ends
• etc, etc, etc

Sunday, I was LIVID. The MOD was very rude and defensive. I, unfortunately, did not get her name. Kurt and I are no longer going to patronize them. Which may not seem like a big deal to those of you who do not live in the sticks, but for us it is. There isn't another bookstore anywhere nearby. There are 2 independent books stores that I know of within 90 miles. There is BDalton but it is owned by B&N.

I called and spoke to a different manager today. After a great while and much explaining and complaining she has agreed to give us an in-store credit. So we will patronize them once more. Then it is over. We're card carrying discount members, too. We spent a significant (to us) amount of money with them. I'm sure they won't feel our loss much but we are done.

Crummy Weekend

Well my last childless weekend - no, make that week - was crummy.

Francis has been sick, then better, then sick, then better, then sicker. He's spending the night in the doggie hospital having a series of barium xrays. All of his levels have JUMPED in the last two weeks. He started throwing up again last night. It appears his pancreas and liver are inflamed. Then when I was vacuuming this afternoon I found more dog barf. Rather than just being bile this pile had something red and green in it. Maybe cloth? I couldn't tell. So now Dr Tom is afraid something might be stuck. Hence the extra xrays. I just came into some money today, too. Looks like we know where that's going to be going :-( But I would like to have a happy, healthy, non-puking pooper again.

Kurt has been gone all but 3 nights this week. He was only home by default on one of them (I forgot to take his clothes when we met friends for dinner Friday night). Him not being here makes me crabby. His company being unorganized and ungrateful makes me crabby.

Saturday was Rikki's 30th birthday bash. She and Amy rented a bus and planned a pub crawl. I got a new outfit and accessories. Saturday we got YET ANOTHER ice storm. Travel not advised and towing prohibited on the route I need to take (along with most of NE Iowa). Lovely. It sounds like a good time was had by all. Instead of partying it up Francis and I stayed in our jammies all day, napped and watched tv and movies. We got in some Iron Chef, some Anthony Bourdain as well as Out of Sight ( I didn't see all of it but it was pretty good). I didn't realize it was a Soderbergh film. Then going with the Jennifer Lopez theme on TNT or TBS we watched Monster in law. It's not going to win any awards but it was entertaining, too. Probably the best of the 3 was The Sentinel with Michael Douglas.

So it's been me and a sick dog all week along with a somewhat crabby and very distracted husband on IM. A bright point was the Caribbean Crusted Snapper I had for dinner on Friday night at Ced Rel Supper Club. Gotta love a place that has a relish tray!

Does it make me a bad step-mother?

That I look forward to the kids being gone on the weekends?

That I don't want to oldest two living with us because of their crappy attitudes and how much strife they cause in my marriage?

That I think if she isn't going to see her kids on the weekends or take any responsibility toward them that she should have her parental rights terminated?

I certainly don't think it does.

What's the Deal?

Our Obama sign has been stolen. As we drove around town yesterday it appears ALL of the Obama signs have been stolen. Seriously? Why don't people take that energy and VOTE???? Cuz I doubt that the stealers are voters.

SOOOO Annoyed!

I want to be watching the Olympics. Instead I am stuck in the dining room supervising the hormonal, lying teenagers. I can't even begin to describe the day I have had. Kurt is in Louisville (well he's on the way home now). He had to parent over the phone, which is always a treat. Especially when one of the kids isn't ours. (Praise God to whom all blessings flow).

The sheer stupidity of 13 and 15 year olds amazes me. Some serious smack needs to laid down around here. There's going to banishment at least until September.

Mandatory sterilization is looking better and better.

It's A Dog's Life

At least around here it is. Kurt made this comment this morning as Francis was sleeping between us with all 4 in the air. He likes to be comfy. Our new pillow top mattress under the new ceiling fan is just fine.

He is spoiled. Worse than Lewis ever was. However, Francis is cuddle dog/lap dog where Lewis was not. Francis has doggie steps so he can get up on the bed. He got a new rope toy today as well as a car harness. He's gonna hate the harness, but it's just not safe with him sitting on my lap while I drive the monster truck.

Mom and I had lunch at the Chinese buffet today. It was good. The cashew chicken was especially good. Then I went to town for groceries. I had a tiny, tiny list. There was no meat on the list. I bought 2 things that weren't on the list - propel for 2.87 and Ben and Jerry's for $3. The bill was still $100.86. I only had 3 tote bags of stuff and 1 cheap lamp in a box. It's ridiculous. The food we have around here is going to change. They can eat apples instead of applesauce and peanut butter instead of sandwich meat and cheese. I've figured out what we are having for supper for the next 2 weeks. I won't have to cook lunch since I'm the only one here. That should help keep costs down, too.

I declined to buy a gorgeous purple butterfly bush. It was on sale for $9.98. If I bought a tote of .95 I could get 30% off of everything could fit in the tote. I may have to go back.

Are you kidding me?

We got our usually amount of groceries last Friday night. It was over $200! Plus that's without any meat. Kurt and I were discussing it this morning so he looked at our YTD spending compared with this time last year. We're spending 20% more! Our fuel cost is 50% more.