The Face of Death Meow....oops...I mean Row!

Okay so I've been smelling this smell....for a while and I've searched high and low looking for the source. I finally concluded that I must be smelling things....I do this....I smell things others just don't notice. Well....my nose was on target....well sort of or it would have sniffed out the source before. Today, in a rare moment of cleaning inspiration, I pulled out the couch to vacuum and there......to my horror....I discovered the crap cache! Maybe a month's worth! I relocated the litter box a while back and apparently Miss Lili just doesn't like the new location. And yes.....I will be moving it back to where SHE wants it! And yes! She wins, which grinds me....but this episode was just unacceptable and must not be repeated!

You might be wondering naturally, "Wasn't she thinking, 'where's the poo' when scooping the litter box?'. Well....I'm a bit mortified to admit that my helpful housekeeper dogs pitch in by 'cleaning' the litter box for me, no need to define that statement. They have 'Cat Crap Fever', and enjoy a mid-day snack. I've asked the vet about this, and no, it's not good for them, but most dogs tend to help their owners in such ways, not unusual. So....well, they're not dead yet, but the cat, well....she's about to be!

Now for all you cat lovers out there (of which I am, believe it or not, one of them), I only put her in jail while I cleaned up her stash, and she was not killed, mutilated or otherwise harmed in the taking of this picture.....however, that may not have been true when I first discovered her deposit! And no....she won't actually be put to death, but I can't say the thought didn't pass thru my mind!!!

Missing Great Sox!

In doing laundry tonight, I came up with the usual 1/2 dozen single sox while sorting. I grabbed my basket that holds the single sox of years past, with the hope of course, that I could make a few mates. While my spirit soared when I reunited a pair of Argyles with each other, sadly I was unable to match up any others. I finally got ruthless and tossed out the sox that had been in and out of the system for evidently the past 20 years or so. I had little kid sox! Even when my kids were little, they didn't have little feet. So....it must be from when they were REALLY little....which means we're talking 25 years or so.

I HAVE SOX FROM THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION! Pretty scary isn't it?

When my dad died and we were sorting thru his worldly goods, I found plastic flowers in the attic along with the lovely matching plastic "vaaaaasze.." and wondered how the heck they kept stuff that long. After all, my mom had passed away 20 years before my dad. And yet he still had orange plastic flowers in his attic! So I guess I come by these "hang onto it for some day" genes naturally. But really... I can do better than this. If I don't want my kids to just light a match to the place when I die, I have to do better than this.

I do wonder from time to time where all these great sox go. Is there like a Bermuda Triangle surrounding me that sox just go missing, sucked into some crazy vortex and churning with all the missing sox of my past lives. How can one or two people possibly have 21 single sox! Wouldn't there be a corresponding pile of them somewhere? I mean they take up quite a bit of space!

One of the biggest unsolved mysteries of our time.

OH FOR PETE'S SAKE!

So....I'm mindlessly (not unusual) signing into my blog, and I somehow got on my Twitter page instead. I guess I wasn't aware that Twitter is so very helpful that they figure that if you write about something, then they'll help you out and send you little tweets to other such somethings. Well....since I wrote about Mary Poppins in bondage, of course they sent me links to BDSM sites. Oh boy! The thought just occurred to me that I've probably signed up for more by actually mentioning it. I'll check them out as soon as I find the key to my handcuffs....KIDDING TWITTER! JUST KIDDING!

Gotta Love Peachycheap!

I just received my $10 grab bag....such a great deal!!! I can't believe all the fun stuff in this! Check it out!!! There's all those little 16 sheets of that Laundry Line tag things....I've bought these individually at scrap stores! They're just so useful!!! And an 8x8 Butcher Block pad, a silver stamp pad, a clear stamp alphabet, 3 pkgs of rub-ons, and a whole pack of American Craft stickers....
Wow! Thank you Peachycheap....and Steph who sent me to this great deal!!!

What a fun day!

Wow....this day has been just so fun! Last week was just not so good....I got so sick & weak and spent a large part of my days watching Little House on the Prairie episodes! While this is such a lovely show, it is not how I dream of spending my time!!! So....I whine and moan to Joyce Wright from the Girls Gone Scrappy club.....just have to complain a bit about the state of me to one who has surely been thru the wringer and then some this year! Much more than what I've endured.....that's for sure. So....I hear a knock on the door today and Jeff answered it....came back in toting a beautiful vase of the most beautiful bouquet of flowers!!! I of course, immediately attributed this to him of course....and he denies it!!! With of course, the obligatory "Who do you know that's sending you flowers?" I couldn't find my glasses quickly enough to read who had done this lovely deed....Joyce!!! So shocked!!! And so touched and grateful for this friend! Joyce was the recipient of my GGS trade for the month of July and was ever so gracious and effusive about it. Such a great first timer to have. I'd never done this mini trade thing and was soooo intimidated by the whole thing....but she quickly put me to ease when I watched the lovely video she did guest starring my mini!!!
Anyway....THANK YOU JOYCE!!! These flowers so brightened my day! Wow! Look carefully at the picture....there's a lemon in the vase....such a beautiful addition to the bouquet. Cleansing....as Joyce said. And such a fresh touch. I just love it!!!

So then....my day improves.....Stephanie Miller....also of Girls Gone Scrappy....was doing the drawing for her blog candy today. I had checked her blog several times to see if she'd done it yet....I was curious about who would win that lovely blog candy....assuming it wouldn't be me. I just don't win things....and yet....who's name does she pull out of that box of names???? Mine!!! I started squealing....got my dogs all in a lather....(another spider in the house?!!!!) and had to stop the video to get hubby to watch with me!!! I'm so excited to have won!!! Had to call my daughter....really so excited about this!!! THANK YOU STEPHANIE!!! I might add that Stephanie is the only reason I can blog period. I set it up and promptly lost it!!!! She was updating her blog following list and wanted the GGS members....so I give it to her and tell her good luck finding it....so she goes hunting and comes back in 30 seconds announcing she's found me and gives me the link!!!! To my own blog!!! Just too funny! I'm sooooo not a computer person! Anyway....I'm so glad I joined the GGS group! I so needed something good to happen and I had two biggies!!! What are the odds for the self-proclaimed Murphy's Law Poster Child?!!!

Mary Poppins in Bondage

A few months back, I was rooting around the Mega Mall, an antique/junk/whatever store with many booths that's up the street from me here. I found some really cute little postcards with these cute little asian characters in them. They were $2 for a little book for 24 of them so of course, I signed up for 3. I kept one and gave the other ones to my daughters, MY DAUGHTER'S!!!, for Christmas a stocking stuffer. (stocking stuffers get harder now that the girls are grown!) So, the other day I needed a little note for someone so I pulled out said little book of cards. Evidently I need to look at each & every post card before I make purchases in future. I was surprised, quite unpleasantly to discover that some of them are a bit um, erotic sorts....I GAVE THESE TO MY DAUGHTERS!!!! I'm so mortified. They look so innocent like they could even be sent to a kid type innocent. When I flipped thru them briefly, all I saw was cute little smiling characters with pretty little soft colors around them. I HAVE TO GET A BIT MORE DETAIL ORIENTED!!!! Most of them are not very innocent at all....I mean not that they're pictures that actually jump out at you if you do a quick flip. It's when you actually look at what the hands are doing, etc....I GAVE THESE TO MY DAUGHTERS!!!! Oh I am never going to live this down. I only hope they haven't sent these to people randomly. I can hear it now..."Oh Lexy, oh Mandy....where did you get those soft porn postcards????? MY MOM! MY MOM!!!! I gave my daughters soft porn cartoon "art"!

Such lack of detail took me back in time to when the girls were young....like 8 and 11. We went to Royal Oak, MI where they had some fun little shops, restaurants & such. My husband saw a place called Noire, a leather store. Being an avid leather fan, since he's a motorcycle papa, he wanted to go in. So...we go in, Jeff & Lex head down one aisle, Mandy and I the other. We're sauntering along looking at jewelry in the case....heads down, etc. I looked up and saw a few employees and they were all dressed in black....very goth types. Ok....it's ok...Lexy's first boyfriend had glow in the dark green hair so black....well at least it's a more 'normal color, though multiple piercings thru cheeks, lips, eyebrows & tongues made me cringe. Ok....still, I try not to be judgemental about people who probably spout water like a sprinkler when they have a drink, just a calm shop browser at this moment...then I look at a rack, there's all kinds of what looked to be instruments of bondage & torture. I glance at a picture on a wall and it's a blown up photo of an unfortunate person who took his own life with a caption of "his last drink of the day was a Smith & Wesson". At this point, I grab my daughter & hustle for my husband who by this time had also seen something that made him realize where we were at and we're both like "WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" And hustle out the door.

Sometimes it knocks me over the head that there's a whole world out there that I'm oblivious to and honestly, I would still like to be oblivious to some of what I learned that day. For one, that they don't tell you in such a place that IT IS such a place when you walk in there like Mary Poppins on a lovely day out to the park with the family unit. Particularly when 2 of that family unit are small children. Two....that it's legal to enlarge such horror photos and sell them in a shop and three, that someone would find such a thing in anyway funny.

I would have gone 50 times thru "It's a Small World After All" to have not exposed my kids to that. I never did ask what it was Jeff and Lexy saw on the other side of the store that made them come hustling to the exit as well. I had enough of an education for the day. I'm not so sure being naive is such a bad thing after all.

Amazing the memories that a postcard will bring.

More of My Haul

Ok....pulled the pack of paper open....super cute!!! I love it! It stinks....literally....ugh, I'm probably getting formaldehyde poisoning!!!! What is that smell?!!! Oh well...no matter....it's pretty. And the guitars....what fell on the floor before!!!!