Grrr

I've been in a foul mood the last couple days. Not totally sure why, I'm not actually sure if I really have a reason. I'm just cranky. Very cranky.

Monday I spent making 14 quarts of dill pickles. Yes, 14 quarts. And I'm not even done, I have more cukes I should use. I also have a case of peaches I need to use; either making jam or canning slices, or both. But I just haven't been in the mood (like I said. Cranky.)

I feel like I'm probably in need of a vacation, but unless some rich relative I don't know decides to bequeath me a chunk of cash for no reason, that's not gonna happen.

Slutty Cyrus?

I can't even believe I'm blogging about stupid Miley Cryus. A small piece of my soul withers up and dies any time someone mentions her or her multiple personalities. But she's a big hit on the celebrity gossip sites and tabloids, and well, I might read several of them. Maybe, but I'm not admitting anything.

Most of this started when some time ago, when doing a shoot for Annie Leibovitz a controversial photo of her 'topless' was taken and released. She and her parents released statements expressing their "shock" and yata yata blah blah blah. I think it's a crock of bull. It's Annie Leibovitz (one of the most successful fashion photographers in the world). My guess is she was all for it.

Next, someone hacked into her phone, and released several racy photos onto the Internet. REALLY not impressive of someone who is 15 (I think at the time) but whatever. Sounds like something her parents need to take care of. It isn't for us to judge her. Not to mention, many everyday 15 year olds are doing MUCH worse. Like I said, not impressed, but really people? Calling her a slut and a whore I'm sure is going to make her change her opinion of herself, right?

Last week, Miley performed on the Nickelodeon Teen Choice awards. I didn't watch it, I'm not a teen and really I don't care. The next morning, every site I'm on is screaming "Miley Cyrus was pole dancing!". I ignored it for a while, but today I was bored and curious so I found a video on YouTube. I will give it to the critics, I'm a mom albeit a young one and I wouldn't want my 7-10 year old to see this. But I have more of a problem with her bra hanging out and her ass hanging out of her shorts (after all the girl is 16!) then her 'pole' dancing. But then again, when I was 16 I don't think I wore much more then a bikini the whole summer. Honestly I think if someone had had to brains to add a collapsed umbrella to the pole no one would have said a thing.

And break...

So, I took a bit of time off this week to just veg out and not do anything. The Boy and I have taken to going for long car rides with the windows down and radio up in the evenings. Good way to cool off (although not very "green" of me to be burning gas) and it's a de-stresser for me to be able to relax and just drive. The Boy likes to give directions, and is actually starting to get a decent map in his head of where he wants to go. Twice this week, he very much on purpose took us to a Dairy Queen. He went two different directions and tried to be sneaky, but he got far too excited when we got close for it to be a coincidence.

Tonight I'm going out to a concert at a local pub-type spot. A friend from school's band is in town from Nashville, and they are actually decent so it's worth the babysitting money. It'll be nice to kick back with some cold beers, great music and good friends.

Not sure yet what's up this weekend, but I'm sure I'll let you know.

Bad Blogger! Bad bad blogger!

Okay, so I've been horribly MIA, and I apologize (again). My sister is having a large, fancy (did I mention large?) wedding in a little over a week and the poor thing managed to get laryngitis over the weekend. Therefore I'm trying to help her out as much as I can with last minute details/calls/visits to the reception hall/etc. On top of that (and working, and having a 3.5 year old) my dad isn't the cleanest guy on the planet and his side of the family plans to camp out at his place. He also is the King of Procrastination and at 2 weeks out from the ceremony hadn't done a thing, and so I'm stuck cleaning his house top-to-bottom spic-and-span by this Friday in addition to the other said things I have taken on.

Hopefully most everything will be finished up this weekend and since I'm pretty sure I'm working I plan to play quite a bit of catch-up on things I've been up to. Until then, I'm taking all the spare time and energy I have to not blow my lid and hurt someone.

Want to help the economy? Don't work.

Now, I might be totally off on this thought, but it's something that has been swirling around my head for awhile. I have several friends who are out looking for jobs, but don't have much experience and are being beat out of minimum wage job by people who have been forced to seriously downgrade their skills. I have one friend who just lost a receptionist-type position to a women who had been a lawyer's clerk/personal secretary for more then a decade.

I'm starting to wonder how much the two-job lifestyle is hurting our country. And I don't mean in the 'traditional roles' versus 'modern roles' way. I'm not arguing about people spending time with their kids, or volunteering at charities or anything like that. I'm speaking strictly financially. People have access to lots of credit, and therefore purchase lots of stuff they can't afford. Then both parties are up to the hilt in debt, and the family cannot afford to NOT have both parents work. But now you add extra costs to the situation. You are now buying 2 lunches, filling 2 cars with gas, paying the daycare of the younger kids, and all sorts of other expenses. Both parents are busy and the amount of fast food and eating out skyrockets. Instead of helping your finances, you might actually be hurting them. In my job previous to this one, I figured out (as I was quitting) that between gas, food and daycare I was actually losing about $75 a month from working, and that doesn't even include all the pizza and take-out we ate because I was too tired to cook a real meal.

It makes me wonder how many families would actually benefit from one or the other parent quitting their job. Things like health insurance and such make it a bit more complicated, but the theory is the same. It's cheaper to cook from scratch, or even semi-homemade then to eat out. 1 tank of gas is obviously cheaper then two. No daycare/babysitter also saves a heap of cash. Not to mention, if a large chunk of the general public did this, there would be a HUGE letup of pressure on the job market.

I'd like to know what everyone else thinks on this. I know it's not realistic, but I'm wondering if anyone has had a similar experience to this, or thinks I'm just bat shit crazy.

Good Intentions Sometimes Go Awry

Yesterday my inital plan was to stay in bed. All day. The Boy didn't like this plan, and literally handed me clothes and told me to get dressed. Plan B was to do some sort of cooking/canning. I wanted to make French Dip Sandwiches, and I've been wanting to make Au Jus for sometime. But for Au Jus you need beef stock. And if I'm going to have beef stock around, I might as well make it myself.

I hit up Stewart's and got a bag of frozen beef bones (swear to goodness, it's huge. Probably 10 lbs.) and also a lb of stew meat (I figured some for the beef stock for flavor, the rest in... stew?) and a butterflied chicken breast (I wanted chicken strips for dinner since the Beef stock was going to take 8 hours or so).

On my way home, I was kindly reminder of a previous engagement I had made. So I was forced to scratch the beef stock until later that night. I figured I wouldn't be able to give it a full 8 hour cook, but at least 6 or so. Instead, I ended up taking the Boy to the hospital (he's fine) and we didn't finish up there until 0500. We finally got home about 0615, and I slept on and off for most of the morning.

Hopefully I will be able to whip something up tonight and pump it out. Not sure if I'll can it tonight, but we'll see.

Quote of the Day

"Bitch, eat a cheeseburger and shut up"

-Me

I went to the local butcher who raises their own beef, pork and chickens. A women and her college-aged daughter came in and stood next to me. The daughter begins to make gagging noises and talk loudly about how meat was murder and the place smelled like blood and terror. I finally mentioned casually that these cows were raised on grass, and allowed to age naturally without hormones, and were probably about the happiest cows around. She disagreed, and we went back and forth for a bit before I lost my temper, resulting in the above comment.

Men!

This has nothing to do with preps or survival (well maybe) or anything like that. It's just me ranting about my husbands ability to send me into the sketchiest places he can possibly find. I don't know if he thinks this is funny or if he honestly doesn't realize that I would stand no chance if someone decided to rob the convenience store with no lighting and bars on the windows. We traveled to a large city for medical reasons a few years ago and of course got lost. Being a man, hubby refused to ask directions, sending me to do his dirty work for him instead. I gathered myself and walked all 5'2" of myself up to the counter and asked directions. The man behind the steel grate couldn't understand a word of English and simply pointed to someone else wandering the dark parking lot. I took a few deep breaths to calm my thumping heart and walked over to this other random stranger. He had no idea where the hospital was but did know one street on the directions I had printed off from the worthless yahoo maps. We finally made it to the hospital and our hotel in one piece.
So a few weeks ago we decided to take a road trip with the boys. Hubby decided he needed a drink and pulled into a nice, clean, well lit convenience store. Not sketchy at all, right? Wrong. I of course am the one who gets to go in and buy beverages for the whole family. I walk in and half the store is nothing but waist high shelves of booze. Nothing too scary about that, right? Until you notice that displayed on the top of each shelf are knives and SWORDS! Thank goodness the boys were still in the car, we never would have made it out of there without them cutting off at least once finger. As I make my way through all the alcohol and daggers I pass a small stand that was covered by a sheet. They sheet was placed so you could just see past the edge to view all of the DVD's that were there to rent. You guessed it, porn. Now what more could this nice, clean well lit family store have to offer you ask. Why not a guy in a turban sitting behind the counter? Yeah it had that guy too. Actually he was the least scary thing in the room. Very nice and quite polite. But still, could a place be any creepier while still giving the illusion of safety from the street? I think not.
Next time, hubby goes in by himself.