Footprints on the Moon

Being free of pain shouldn’t be a distant hope, but it ends up being that way for a lot of people. One person I’d really like to see be free of pain is my grandma. Here you can see a picture of her with Killian:

I remember back when I got some samples of Freeze It Gel in the mail to try. I was skeptical because I’d tried other products and not been satisfied. But I had some aches and pains and decided to go ahead and give it a shot. To my surprise, it worked! It didn’t stink, it wasn’t greasy and hard to wash off my hands. It was just soothing– in short, everything you need in pain relieving topical gel!
A week or so later, I was at my grandma’s and noticed a tube of Freeze-It sitting on her end table next to her chair. I explained that I’d just tried the product myself, but I really wanted to know what she thought of it. To be honest, I don’t remember exactly what she said. Partly because it was quite awhile ago, and my memory is just not that good… partly because that wasn’t what made an impression. Yes, she said she liked it, and it was working for her, but what made an impression was that she wished it didn’t cost so much. It makes me sad that relief isn’t free, especially when the aches and pains make her talk about not being around anymore. Doesn’t she know she’s going to live forever? Anything less is simply unacceptable! My mom said Grandma reads my blog, so… do you hear that Grandma? Forever! If not forever, for a very long time yet, okay?
I can just imagine the world of good that a year’s suppy of Freeze It would do– woman’s got great grandchildren to chase around!

Why am I ashamed?

I got this in the mail today, and I haven’t even touched any of my digital scrapbooking in ages. I’m not even sure why… I was so excited about it. I think it’s the same thing as usual… I feel inadequate when so many people are better than I am, and I get a complex, and I do nothing at all.
I think it’s time to play with again, though, don’t you? Like I don’t waste time better spent on enough other things! But I have a couple projects in mind, and they’ll never get done if I don’t get started, right? Right.

Saturday, I received a small sample pack of items from Vat19.com. In my package was a small packet of InstaSnow, a package of Rainbow Moments colored flame candles, and a Very Berry scented Smencil.

That’s the only picture of the Smencil that I have, but it’s really cool. It smells amazing, for one, but it’s also made out of recycled newspaper. Yummy and eco-friendly? Sounds good to me! They sell them in packs of 10 with the following scents: Chocolate, Orange, Cherry, Cotton Candy, Grape, Watermelon, Popcorn, Root beer, Very Berry, and Bubble Gum. I could see these making great stocking stuffers!

Next, I had to try out the Color Flame Party Candles. The two white candles in the package burn with the normal orange colored flame, so I thought it would make a great comparison to the others! I tried the purple one first, but the effect was so subtle, I couldn’t really catch it on camera. So I put that one down, and lit one of the green candles. Now THAT was cool! I had to go in the bathroom in the dark to get the picture, but check it out:

Finally, it was time to play with the InstaSnow Powder. I admit, I was a skeptic when it came to this stuff, but I gamely poured the small packet of powder into a large bowl and measured out my 10 oz. of water. I poured it in, and the powder started expanding immediately! We get loads of the real stuff every winter, but it was still fun to play with the completed product. It would be really neat if you could form snowballs with this stuff (you can’t), but it would be useful for a Christmas Village or to put around a Christmas tree, especially if you live in warmer climates. I actually left this bowl of “snow” sitting on my stove last night so I could see how well it lasts, and so I could play with it some more!

Vat19 has a lot of fun things on their website, obviously, but they also have some useful things as well. The Bodygard Emergency Tool, for example. It’s a keychain that can be used to cut seatbelts, break car windows (in case of an emergency only, you hooligan!), and has a sonic alarm, LED flashlight, and a distress signal light. Coming into the winter months here in Indiana, I can see how this tool might be a very useful thing to have! Anyways, go check out the Vat19 website… if you’re like me, you’ll browse every page of the website, and come up with a few things to add to your Christmas list.

Dear Lady in the Black Truck,

I suggest you find a hobby. If a small snafu in the parking lot at Meijer makes you come so completely unhinged, your world is clearly too small. I hope it made you feel better to follow me around. But I just want to you to know that while what happened seemed like the end of the world to you, I came home to write about it and let all my readers know how batshit crazy you are.

Happy Thanksgiving,
The girl who was just trying to park her car

So the story that goes with that… lol I was getting ready to start making lunch yesterday morning, and I was going over the recipe one more time (be looking for that on Jenn Cooks over the next couple of days) when I realized that the container of cottage cheese I had purchased was going to be too small. So I threw on some clothes and a hat and ran out to Meijer to grab some more cottage cheese and a couple of cases of pop.
When I got there, I discovered that the entire city has apparently just realized that Thanksgiving is this week. It was next to impossible to find a parking spot that wasn’t a mile away. I did finally find one, however, and there was a lady in a black truck in the spot next to it, at an angle just slightly over the line. Not enough to keep you from parking in the free spot, though, so I started to park. I overshot it a little bit, so I had to back up, and turn in again. As I started to turn into the spot, the lady in the black truck takes her car out of park and starts backing up. Of course I start yelling, cause well, that’s just what I do. But it wasn’t a big deal– she didn’t see me and started to back out of her spot.
I get pulled into the spot, and I look up and she’s flipping me off! What the heck? But being the courteous, friendly person I am, I promptly returned the gesture. She started to back out again, so I shut off the car, and grabbed my purse. I waited in the car for a second so she could back out without worrying about me getting out of the car. But she doesn’t move. So finally, I just get out of the car, and she waves at me and starts screaming something. Big Brave Lady, too, since she didn’t have the balls to roll down the window and let me know what she was yelling. I just ever so kindly smiled at her, and repeated our little Beverly Hillbillies Howdy that we’d exchanged earlier.
I started walking into the store (keeping an eye on her and my car, of course!) and she backed out, and then sped up the very next aisle so that she would be there when I crossed. Unfortunately for her, I had the time to get across the lane before she got all the way there. Seriously?? How ridiculously small does your world have to be for someone pulling into the spot next to you when you’re trying to back out make you come so completely unhinged?
So that was my lovely experience with the crazy people yesterday morning.

In Vegas, we stayed at the Imperial Palace. The price was right, and the reviews we found online were fairly decent, so that’s where we went. Now, none of us were expecting a fabulous hotel, but I don’t think anyone was quite prepared for an experience in which the bathroom sink was the only thing that was “right.”
First thing out of the gate is that we’d requested rooms that were next to each other, adjoining if possible. Colleen even called ahead and had them add that to the reservation, and we all waited for each other at the airport to check in at the same time. When we got upstairs we were across the hall from each other, and they refused to allow us to move, despite the fact that the party who DID have an adjoining room with us had not checked in (nor had they requested the room they were in).
Then we discovered that there were 2 double beds in the room, even though we’d paid for Queens. The hotel staff maintained until the end that they were Queens, but since I have a double bed, and Cass has a Queen, that was clearly not the case.
Cass called 4 times on Wednesday night for more towels (there were 2 towels, plus the handtowels and washcloths available for 4 people), and extra pillows. We did not get those items until she called back Thursday morning and someone new answered the phone and talked to a supervisor.
The tub backed up, and was slow to drain… I deal with this at home, but I don’t pay nearly as much to stay in my apartment every night! There was no lid on the toilet seat– where the heck do you put stuff when you’re in the shower? I’d never been in a hotel like that before. The volume buttons on the TV remote didn’t work. Cass and I both paid $10 for 24 hours of wireless internet service that worked only when it wanted to. Oh yeah, and their breakfast buffet left quite a bit to be desired.
Nothing completely awful, but it adds up. It was still a great experience, but we definitely realized that you get what you pay for. The next time I’m in Vegas, I think I’d like to put up a little more money to stay some place nicer.

I’m currently steeling myself against all the Black Friday sales. I have a self-imposed “rule” that I don’t leave the house on the day after Thanksgiving. I don’t do well with the traffic, and large crowds of crazy people that are every where. Not to mention that I can’t afford to go shopping anyways. Still, I find myself drawn in by the microwave ovens and video games.
I’m particularly drawn to the TVs. I’d like a new one. It’s not needed desperately, but it would be very nice. There also just so happens to be an AMAZING deal in the ad for the Friday door buster sales. Repeat after me: I cannot afford to purchase a TV, no matter how cheap. I cannot afford to purchase a TV, no matter how cheap. I cannot afford to purchase a TV, no matter how cheap.

I took this picture yesterday when I was at my dad’s house getting him to install my new windshield wiper blades. You know, the ones that have needed to replace for months. In any case, I finally got around to purchasing them, so I headed over there to discover this little man playing!! In this picture, I was helping him look out the window to watch Grandpa blow leaves in the front yard. Tell me, who needs a pearl necklace, when they have a gem like this to be in their pictures?
Well, I need to get up and think about cleaning and getting things around because I’m cooking dinner for my mom and her husband… they’ll be here in 4 hours. That might sound like loads of time, but I have the attention span of a flea when it comes to cleaning, and there’s a lot to do! So head on over to DigiCass to see the rest of the pictures today!

I finally decided last night to sit down and balance out my checking account after the trip to Vegas, so I would know exactly how much I spent, and how much I had left. I would have kept right on putting that off, but I desperately needed to go grocery shopping, so I couldn’t delay that any longer.
So I got the numbers all squared away, and headed out to Meijer to pick up some food and necessities. By the time I got everything home, and lugged it upstairs, I put away the refrigerator and freezer stuff, and left everything else on the kitchen floor. This morning, however, I went to put my groceries away and was confronted with a problem– a pantry so full of things that needed cleaned out and thrown away that there was no room for anything else, not even a single can! It’s a job I’ve been putting off for awhile, but it was time. Seriously, the amount of expired food in my pantry was appalling! But it’s all cleaned out now, and the trashbags are sitting outside the front door waiting to go down to the dumpster.
I didn’t get a “Before” picture, but trust me when I tell you, my pantry did not look like this this morning!

I bought my camera about a year and a half ago, just before a trip that I took with my friend Erica. Part of my reasoning of buying it then was that I could take pictures during our vacation, but I really wanted a digital camera anyways, so that I could take and share pictures of my nephews when they were born several months later. Now, I wish I’d waited a little bit longer before making my purchase. I could’ve saved a little bit more, and ended up with a better camera — they released nicer cameras, and dropped prices like two minutes after I bought mine! And really, I wouldn’t have missed much… a few pictures, sure, but mostly the pictures were taken of animals at the zoo. Why do we do that? Take pictures of animals at every zoo you go to, like you’ve never seen a zoo before! But I digress.

Going to Vegas though, I found myself really, really wanting a nicer camera. I went from having a small twinge of longing, and into full blown “OMG. Must. Have. Now.” The difference in quality of the pictures that I took, and the pictures that those with nicer cameras took is remarkable. I commented more than once that I felt like my camera was the red-headed stepchild in the group. Cass has the same camera that I do, and I know she was feeling the same way! For right now, I’ll have to start saving my pennies. I already have a new camera picked out, and it’s nice… nice and expensive.

In the meantime, I think I’m going to have to invest in new camcorder batteries. I have a set of rechargeable batteries now, but even rechargeable batteries have a shelf-life. They don’t hold a charge as long as they used to, and my camera slows down with half charged batteries. Long before the batteries give up the fight, the camera will slow way down, and it takes longer to take a picture, and even longer for the camera to process it and be ready to take another one. When a lot of the times, you are attempting to take pictures of your nephews, you need to get a picture in a split second. Needless to say, the delay is not working for me. After Christmas, it will be time to start saving my pennies and weighing my options.

Do any of you watch Kitchen Nightmares? It’s on Fox, Wednesday nights at 9. The basic premise is that Gordon Ramsay (of Hell’s Kitchen) visits restaurants that are failing and attempts to find out what is going wrong. It’s completely addicting because he finds things like severe bug infestations, rotten food, and cooks picking things off the floor and putting them back in the pan. And all the while, the head chef at the restaurant is all affronted that Gordon is giving them suggestions, and how dare he suggest that they might not know what they are doing?
It’s completely predictable– the food sucks, lots of fights ensue, Gordon fixes it and everyone goes home happily ever after. Even so, I’m completely hooked! I go to bed late every Wednesday night because I simply must stay up and watch the end. The only thing that drives me crazy is that at the end of the show, they give you a preview of next week’s restaurant. And every.single.time the announcer says, “This might be Gordon’s greatest challenge yet!” No kidding? You said that last week, and the week before that, and the week before that… How about we say “Hey, they’re all difficult!” and find something more specific to say?