Good stuff.

Ha! Jake has a serious girlfriend. Keep in mind, my son is...well...my son...and intensely private, so he may have had a girlfriend before and I just never knew it. And I'm fairly certain he had a boyfriend of sorts at one point. But this girl? Has been acknowledged. She has a name, which I won't give here at this point in time, but which is actually spoken. She calls here, he owns she's his girlfriend and while I've never met her personally (this is all pretty new), I've seen her and she's a doll. She looks like a real-life anime character, tiny with the big hair, just adorable. I talked to her on the phone the other night and she has nice manners, too, a sweet and very pleasant girl, full of nervous giggles. I'm not sure who was more nervous, though, her or me. *grins* I tried to play it all cool and act like this is just another everyday thing but yeah, it's not. He? Is being far more adult-acting, responsible and agreeable. I'm thinking there's love involved here and the idea not only doesn't freak me out, it makes me smile. I'm also thinking there will be condoms in his Christmas stocking this year.

Speaking of love, I keep thinking of little things I'm loving and ought to share, so I compiled a list:

1. Even though it's summer, I've been on a soup binge to celebrate having a/c. Here are the two best recipes I have and I can't seem to get enough of either of them. Chili's Chicken Enchilada Soup Recipe Now, I do add a can of black beans to this, but otherwise leave it alone. This is *so good and if you roast whole chickens often, as I do, this is a great use of the leftover meat. The other soup recipe is for Pumpkin Curry Soup. Because we like leftovers, I double the recipe but I do not double the evaporated milk since we like it less milky. Alternately, leave the recipe as-is and halve the milk. Or, you could make it up to the milk stage and add cream, half-and-half or whole milk until it's at a place you like. Basically, the milk is flexible per your own tastes and coconut milk works quite well, too. Both soups are wonderful, I promise.

2. Those who know me know I love tarts...the candle kind that you melt in a tart warmer. My favorite tart pimp is Busy Bee Candles. My house smells like heaven with her stuff. Also, for the first time ever, I tried her body spray. I got it in the Blue Sugar scent, since I love, love, love the Blue Sugar tarts and also in Lime Cilantro. Let me just say her body spray is one of the best quality ones I've ever ordered. If you love body scents, try her stuff and at this point I feel pretty confident all of her bath/body products will be of equal quality. Also, you can order from the drop down menu, but you can also request any scent off the scent descriptions list. So, $5.00 plus shipping for a great scent in a cute bottle? Risk it. I did and I'm thrilled...one little shot of the Blue Sugar lasted me a good 10 hours. I'd order it in the Maple Sugar scent, but I'm of the opinion fat people ought not smell like baked goods.

3. Cake mix cookies. These are the easiest cookies *ever and always turn out great. Using the same basic recipe, you can vary your flavor of cake mix and what you add in (1/2C, more or less, according to your taste), with the result being some darn good cookies! Here is the basic recipe: Cooks.com - Recipe - Cake Mix Cookies Don't use cake mixes that require you add butter, so check the back of the box. Otherwise, flavor and add-ins are on you and I roll them into walnut-sized balls instead of dropping them. I like uniform cookies. I'm not a huge sweet-eater, but family favorites are yellow mix with chocolate chips for a traditional chocolate chip cookie, devil's food mix with white chips, and spice mix with craisins or left plain and rolled in cinnamon sugar. You can make a mean snickerdoodle with a plain yellow cake mix and then roll the balls in cinnamon sugar, so you know. One year I used a pineapple mix and added some candied fruit...this was a huge hit amongst the old ladies I know. :-D Just experiment with things your family likes...this recipe is so easy, it's one even older kids and non-bakers can manage. Oh, you might want to forget what it says in the recipe and either line your cookie sheets with parchment or aluminum foil and give them a brief spray of PAM, to boot. It seems like anything I bake sticks and this works best for me. If you have super nice non-stick cookie sheets, you might be able to skip this. I don't. I have nasty-looking, icky cookie sheets that sort of freak me out a little since they look dirty even when I know they aren't.

4. Nadinola Shea Butter. I'm cursed with horribly sensitive but oily skin, especially on my face. I struggle to find products my skin won't adjust to and then rebel against and trust me, I've tried everything from the expensive ones down to the cheapest. The one thing I've found that my skin seems to always accept without complaint and that helps with the awful, flakey dryness, is Nadinola Shea Butter. I get this nice 4 ounce tub for 97 cents at Walmart and, as far as I'm concerned, it's nothing short of a miracle. I've bought $50 products that can't do what this little tub does. It's in the ethnic hair/skin care area and while you're there, take a good browse around...if you have dry skin or damaged hair and drugstore prices are what you can afford, you'll have far better luck here than in the general areas for these products.

5. Mudflats I know the election is over, but this site is still intent on protecting the rest of us from mess that is Sarah Palin. We need Mudflats. *nods* But to show I'm no bleeding heart liberal, we also need Mike Huckabee. I love Mike Huckabee.

6. Have you ever heard of Carlton Pearson? If not, you ought to Google him, read about him, keep an open mind. Rev. Pearson is one of the very few who make Christianity feel comfortable for me. He's a conservative Christian with a very open mind...what an amazing, incredible mix. I was raised Southern Baptist but began rebelling at age 4, no lie. I hated it, it terrified me with how wrong it felt in my heart, even at that age. I do not consider myself to be Christian, I never have although I see much beauty in the faith, as I do in other faiths. But, no matter your persuasion, I encourage you to read about Carlton Pearson...you may be as glad as I am that you did. Also, on the topic of Christianity and preachers, let me just say that for all the bad taste the Christianity I was raised with left in my mouth, I love the Rev. Billy Graham. I mean, I sincerely love the man and believe he's God-sent to our world to try to help people get on a good path in life. How can anyone not love a man who says this? "'I don’t throw rocks at anybody,' he said. 'That’s not my message. My message is the Gospel of Christ.'” Were more Christians like Billy Graham, maybe more non-Christians wouldn't be so put off by it. Just a thought and a share about two remarkable men of God. A praise, even.

7. On a far lighter note, after way too much trial, wasted money and stinky error, Tidy Cats Scoop Litter For Small Spaces is the best cat litter ever for multiple cat households. Providing your cats cover their stuff, it keeps odor to an absolute minimum and it clumps tighter and neater than anything I've found yet for scooping. Every few days (I scoop both boxes at least once a day but often twice), I give a good sprinkling of one of the carpet powders that specify for pet odors and mix it in...this combination is the best I've found for eliminating litter box smells from a house.

8. Roadside memorials. I love them...they just kill me. Oh, wait, that sounds bad, doesn't it? They just crack me up. Hmmm. Nevermind. Just know I love them and I might show you just how much soon. :-D

9. FLVS.net. Heh, my son is home schooled and they do it for me. Free. Can it get any better? I think not.

10. Crocs. I will own it all day long - I *love Crocs, I am Croc-wearing girl. I have touchy feet due to a medical condition and Crocs make walking and being on my feet bearable again. In the summer, I live in the Athens flip-flops and wear the Scutes as a house-slipper. In the winter? It's one of the clog types and socks, Baby, because I'm sexy like that.

So, some insight on me and things I love because I just know that someday, someone will read this and become enlightened. May the force be with you.

Oh, look. A post.

That last post? On June 11th? Was the last time I opened this poor blog up until today. Yeah. I believe June 12th was the day I found Farm Town and anyone who plays it will know exactly what I mean.

I have had some good things happen in the last 2 months, though. The best? I have a/c! Back when mine died a few years back, I had numerous places tell me it was shot, a couple of which I really trusted, so I took that to be fact and we've had some rough times in the heat. Finally, in early July, I did bite the bullet and decided to have a new central a/c and heat unit put in. I did my research, made a list of places that were incredibly reputable and had them come out for estimates. In the middle of it all, though, I also needed a toilet repair that I just couldn't do so I called the neighborhood handyman. While he worked, I asked him if he knew of any reputable a/c places. He told me an ex-BIL of his does a/c work on the side and is very good, plus cheap since it's side work. Now, I trust the handyman completely so if he recommends this guy, I'm comfortable. I call said a/c guy who comes out and is *adorable. Short, wiry, hairy hyper and very, very NY Italian, pulls up in a red Corvette...what's not to love here? He looks around and asks if I care if he tried repairing if. I scoffed. He rolls his eyes and tells me he's a magician with these things...so fine, prove it. He gets out with multiple flashlights, after dark, and tears into the outside part. It's 9pm and he's got it totally disassembled in my side yard, telling me to trust him. Well, hmph, fine. An hour later he walks in, smirks at me, flips it on and it pours cold air. Fuck me, he fixed it! I nearly cried, called him my hero and asked what his charge was. He tells me $200. The hell? I write him a check and kiss his feet. Well, in my mind, anyway. So, here we are, still with a good working a/c and I don't give a rat's ass that he does this on the side. He's *honest. And when it finally does die, he's got the job for a new one. And me? I no longer feel like a hotbed, literally, of yeast and fungus. I know, that's sexy, isn't it?

Also the fabulous (I lie) states of Florida and Tennessee finally figured out, after 4 years, how to get child support out of my ex-husband. They used an old court order and first (yes, first) garnishment amount so even though he's paying, his arrearage is still growing. It's just growing more more slowly now - $13,000 and counting. But hey, that $76.15 a week means we get to buy unnecessary stuff and that's been fun...shoes, clothes, cologne for me. Okay, shoes for me, too. It won't last, but while it does, we're going to revel in the frivolity of it all.

Lastly, I want to mention something that is weighing on my mind and it is serious. For quite awhile now, I've followed my charming kids. While I've never really bought into her life as being as peachy-keen as she represents it to be and while some of her parenting made me cringe, I still enjoyed it. Until recently. Someone dug up some public records and discovered her husband had been charged with domestic violence within the last year and that they have two homes in foreclosure. The homes, whatever...shit happens and it sucks since she says they take nothing from the government and yet it'll be taxpayers covering a lot of this mess, but yeah, whatever. I guess I can overlook her never mentioning that but the domestic violence part? Not so much. She refers to her husband as Prince Charming and then this? Here's the deal - I lived through domestic violence, and for years. I refuse to call myself a victim of it because I'm *no one's* victim and I could have left. I chose not to and, even now, I'm glad I didn't. I became a better person for it and was very lucky. I'm no victim, just a survivor. But, what kills me is how MckMama blew off whatever happened as a normal up and down in marriage. Uh, no. That's an insult to normal marriages *and it's an insult to people who have experienced domestic violence. Jesus. I just want to slap the stringy snot out of her. How dare she nonchalantly wave her hand around and dismiss whatever caused her husband to be arrested TWICE as a normal up and down? Unless, of course, she lied on him and had him falsely arrested. Regardless, she needs to stop and think about the message that sends to women who may be in abusive relationships and who read her blog. "He hits you? Or he doesn't but he makes you fear for your life? Aww, Honey, it's just a normal up and down part of marriage! Ride it out! I am!" Seriously? Fuck you and the dysfunctional horse you rode in on, Jennifer. Bear in mind, with your attitude and the way your followers look up to you, you may well wind up with a death on your shoulders to bear. Are you okay with that? I'm not, which is why I wrote this.

And, with all that said, I leave you with this. I want anyone who might happen to read this to go to bed feeling like a genius. Is This The Stupidest Person Ever? (VIDEO)

Someone needs to man the Trend Caboose...

I seem to have a love/hate relationship with blogging. God knows I'm not obsessed with it, since I'll go weeks and weeks without bothering, but part of that is because I bore myself with it. The weird part is, nearly every day I think of something, see something, take a picture of something and think "Boy, I should blog about that." The other thing I've noticed is a personal realization...I lag behind in being trendy. I tend to get interested in trends as they're on their way out the door. Case in point, in the last week or so, I've had this overwhelming urge to redo my bedroom in a shabby-chic look. You know, that whole thing that was really popular several years back? And I finally bought some wide legged jeans. Of course, peg leg ones are coming back in style, I now read. Whatever. And now, suddenly, I feel like really, truly blogging despite having read a few weeks ago that the blogging trend was dying off. It's a rebellion thing, isn't it? I'm being told no and I'm figuratively saying, "Oh, hell, no one tells me no...I'll show you!" Too bad diets aren't out of vogue, that's all I'm saying.

So, from here on out, I'm going to (try to) share my (semi) daily life, such as it is. Will it be fun if I get regular readers? Sure it will and I can't lie about that. I plan on whoring myself around sometime, too, to see if I can pick up a readership. Do I care if I do not? Not really, no. Part of this is something I want to do almost as a memorial to myself and who I am. I admit, I'm not a big sharer in real life. If I should die a month from now in a bad, freak cleaning accident, I'd like my mom and Jake to find this blog and know who I really am...what makes me laugh and what makes me mad, what I found fun in life and what pissed me off, what makes me sad and what scares me. I'd like them to really know me in a way I can't seem to show well in person. I'd like them to find this and know how very much I loved them, even during the times I wanted to slap them just so I could see the look of shock on their faces.

I should probably delete that last part, huh?

The best news headline ever.

Two Mexican Midget Wrestlers Killed by Fake Prostitutes

There's just nothing else I need to add. Or *could add.

Checks and balances for a sucky day.

These bad things happened today:

1. My new clothesline failed. Or falled. Take your pick.

2. My kid got his first-ever busted lip and messed up chin by thinking he could jump off a swing while it was swinging high. It's so pathetic to see. What's more pathetic is that he'll be 18 in September. He wonders why I've never allowed him to get his driver license but this is why...he can't even drive a swing. Why would I trust him with a car?

3. I'm growing tomato plants out of the bottom of a basket as an experiment. As of yesterday, they were beautiful, strong, healthy, and vibrant. Much like I used to be. This morning, the basket fell. Yeah. They are now much more like I am...broken and slightly dehydrated.

4. Jake, aka Busted Lip Kid, asked me about child support for the first time in 5 years today. He wanted to know how far in arrears his dad is, etc. I told him nearly $12,000. I've not pushed hard for child support for many years because when he was younger, the whole drama of it all upset him since his dad felt the need to tell him everything. Today, he tells me to push hard but to please not ask for his dad to go to jail. I explain that while I won't ask, it could still happen. He said that that would be his dad's choice, then. How sad it is when a kid is so disgusted by their own father that they don't really care if he goes to jail? This just isn't how it is supposed to be.

5. I saw a roach (okay, fine, it was a palmetto bug - same thing in my mind and I think it was 19" long) in the bathroom and I couldn't catch it to kill it. I will now have nightmares about them crawling on me, since where there's 1 there will also be 5,736,923 more who have his back. I guess, really, killing that one wouldn't have mattered a lot but it might have sent a warning. I sleep with my mouth open, though. I'm dying here.

These good things happened today:

1. I did not die from heat exhaustion in my own bed or recliner.

(struggles some to come up with more)

2. I fixed the cold water faucet in my shower.

3. I got a random and unexpected kiss from the bitchiest of my cats, Beatrice.

4. Tucker, my young, feral male cat, made a huge stride in trust today by staying on my bed the entire time I made it up and killing the sheet wrinkles for me. Typically, a sheet change will send him into hiding in another room for hours. This was huge and only (lol, because what else do I have to do?) took 9 months.

5. I didn't spend any money.

There. I've balanced positives against negatives and will leave the internet with a sense of balance tonight. And a need to pee. Who am I kidding? Once I pee I'll have my second wind and be back online.

So what? It was just a Sunday.

Man, what a wasted day.

It is hot, hot, hot and living in Florida without air conditioning just plainly sucks. It's going to be a long summer, involving many naps in the recliner with ice packs on my body and yes, that's every bit as attractive as it sounds, make no mistake. I may wind up biting a very expensive bullet and springing for a new a/c as much as I hate that. I woke up this morning intending to have some yogurt and coffee, then spend the whole day working in the back yard...I wanted to hang a retractable clothesline because my white-trash reflex, which is similar to a gag reflex only in my butt, kicks in at the idea of having a real clothesline while living in a older subdivision. A clothesline out in the country? Is a thing of beauty. Here? It looks like my dryer broke and I can't afford a new one. Now, I might not be able to afford new central a/c without pain, but dammit, I can buy myself a new dryer if I need one. In the end, my country roots won out and I compromised with a 49 foot, retractable clothesline. I have the pleasure of owning a non-working street light in my backyard, so I attached the contraption to it and the cup hook thingie to the wooden door frame of my utility room and got myself 40' of clothesline that runs diagonally right through my back yard when in use. It is the anti-epitome of class, I tell you. Of course, it isn't as bad as what the previous owners of this house did...they had a 2-pole clothesline with a pole on either side of the patio. They never had to get their (assumption being made) bare feet dirty while they gathered their clean Marlboro freebie t-shirts. Impressive. I cut that shit down with a hacksaw the first week I owned this place. Anyway, I got it up and it works. I never did get to the laundry, though, and it is sorted in stacks in my living room. I'm trying to think if them as "color splashes".

I also intended to dig out my new garden for late Summer/Fall, start prepping it. It won't be big but I dearly miss having one and have made my list of things I want to grow: tomatoes, green pepper, colored pepper, jalapen(insert squiggly mark over the n)o pepper, eggplant, scallions, garlic, many types of squash, watermelon, pickling cucumbers, green beans and gourds. To the side, I also want a new herb garden. My plan was to dig it out today, then begin adding in peat and manure, as well as some fencing. How far did I get? Well, I took a can of purple spray paint and sort of measured and marked it out. Then I got hot. And hungry. I came in, had some chicken salad and had a nap in the recliner. I might go mark some more with spray paint tomorrow. Truly, it's a lovely thing that my kid doesn't depend on what his mother grows to feed him. Oh, and I asked him what he wanted to grow. Celery. He wants to grow fucking celery, that I can get for $1 a bunch and I always throw half of that bunch away. Yeah, he'd have better luck asking me to grow weed. Um. Not that I told him that and not that I would. But hell, at least it's worth more than $1 a bunch.

My other plan o' the day was to caulk the cracks in the front of the house so that come next hurricane, we won't be sopping up water with clothing because we have no power to run the Shop Vac and we've sopped with all the towels already. I've already caulked the worst (southeast) side but I need to do the front before I repaint. I got nowhere with that plan. I can't even lie and say I tried. I sorely need to do that, especially around my front door and Jake's room but it was hot and I was spectacularly unenthused.

I did make chili-lime shrimp and a summer squash casserole for dinner. I worked a suduko puzzle. I scooped 2 litterboxes. I watered my geraniums, my fuschia and my petunias. That part was hard. It involved sitting in something other than my recliner and my legs were forced to hang down in the process. I read some blogs. I worked on a letter to my state rep about child support, or rather, my lack thereof. That last one pissed me off and and caused me to put a bottle of wine in the freezer to chill down fast.

The day ended with me letting my kid go spend the night at some friends' house for the 3rd time this week and with my normal question to him as I dropped him in front of their house at 8pm: "Are you going in through the window or door tonight?" After all, I am an involved mother and insist on knowing what my kid is doing. "The window" was the reply, and I nodded. Then I saw him walk to the door and knock. Like any good mother, I immediately wondered why he lied and if he was up to something, and I will ask him about this tomorrow. He was supposed to go in the window, dammit. I felt better after I came home and had a glass of wine and watched Dog The Bounty Hunter. In my recliner.

So, in the end, it's safe to say today was a waste. I didn't even shower. And I'm still wearing what I wore to bed last night. Tomorrow will be a better day.

::flicks a bluebird off my monitor::

Chastity Bono, God and Jesus.

So, here's the deal going on in my head...first, I'm not a Christian. Let me make that very clear. I do not believe Jesus was the son of God any more than any of us are the sons and daughters of God. We all have our very special and needed jobs to do on this Earth, in this life. I believe that Jesus was one of many people put here to help lead us all to the end goal. That all said, I'm a huge fan of Jesus and his teachings and, cliche' as it is, have found an answer I need on more than one occasion by asking myself "what would Jesus do?" Add into all this, I'm *very firm in my belief that God makes no mistakes. Ever. We might feel He's made mistakes when things don't suit us and we might try to change those things and even use God in justifying it. Infertility comes to mind. How many times have I heard "God gave us the science to cure infertility" or "If God didn't intend us to use IVF, He wouldn't have given us the science that made it all possible." I've got news for you - given this line of thinking, God also made it okay to blow people up with nuclear weapons, burn children with Napalm, mail Anthrax, shoot people in drivebys, perform abortions, etc. Yeah, I know. I piss people off when I insert logic into religion but let's face it - God is pretty damn logical.

So, let's move on, shall we? After all, it's my mind we're taking a tour of and the MindBus is ready to roll again. So, which is it? Does God say "I gave you the power, my children, so use it all!" or does God say "I gave you the power, my children, to do both good and evil. Don't let selfishness confuse them. Just because you want it and it can be done doesn't mean it *should be done." Personally, I vote for that last one. God made us as we are...some of us have big noses, some of us are blind, some of us are infertile, some of us are gay, some of us are drop-dead gorgeous, some of us are geniuses, some of us are shy, some of us are born to die young and the list goes on and on. God makes no mistakes. Everything has a reason and I believe we need to stop second-guessing God and instead of bemoaning what we have that makes us different and trying to change it, we need to learn to embrace the fact that God makes no mistakes and we are as we are supposed to be. He has reasons and just because we don't understand those reasons doesn't mean we can discard them. For those who may read this, are you a parent? Don't you often make decisions your kids don't understand or like but that you know are best? Of course you do. And some of those decisions are ones children just can't grasp because they lack the maturity and wisdom to understand. God, by whichever of His many names you wish to call him, is my spiritual father. Is He yours? We lack His wisdom and maturity to understand many things and that's where faith and trust should be coming into play, just as we expect that from our own children. Some of us were never meant to have biological children or maybe we were only meant to have one. Some of us were meant to die at age 3. Some of us were given too much or too little of something by man-made and so-called "normal" standards, be it good or bad. But, by God's standards, we are all EXACTLY as He intended us to be, so we should accept the fact some of us don't fit the man-made definition of "normal" and embrace that instead of trying to change it. Embrace that God made us different for an important reason. He made us special, out of the so-called norm, because He felt we could be trusted to be different. Why anyone would mess with what God created if one believes in God? I admit, that's a hard one for me and it's hard enough I'm game to call it wrong. It's wrong to second guess God. It's wrong to correct what you deem to be God's mistake. It's wrong to say "Well, God gave us the science to fix it". Why in the world would God give you something "wrong" and then give you the science to fix it? Don't you think He has better things to do with His time than to play little mind games with you? I do.

And if you haven't figured out where Chastity Bono fits into this post yet, reread it. It's a damn shame she hasn't figured out that's she's perfect as she is, as God created her. If she can't accept that, if she can't figure out that gender isn't a black and white thing but just a guideline with many options in the middle, that surgery isn't the answer and maybe God or therapy is, then I'm very sad for her. I mean, I am truly and deeply sad for her.

In the end, God makes no mistakes.