12.27.2007

Steamed

Today was pretty nice out. While I was out feeding the chickens I thought I'd do a little yard work as well. I cut down all the old chrysanthemums and shiso. I carried the pile of vegetation back behind the garage where we have a big brush pile. There on top of the pile was a freshly cut cedar. A single leader tree the perfect size for a Christmas tree. Who the hell would be lobbing their spent tree onto our brush pile the day after Christmas? Dh.

Every year we use a potted Norfolk Island pine as our tree. It makes for a very ugly tree but nothing is killed. I hate the idea of killing a tree just for two weeks of decoration. That's the tree hugger in me. So when I found out that the perfect little cedar laying on top of our brush pile was actually the perfect little cedar tree that used to be in our front yard I went ballistic.

Dh cut it down because he didn't want it there anymore. The branches were extending 16 inches into the backyard gate he said. So he hacked it down and threw it away knowing fully well that I would go ballistic when I found out. But, hey, it's too late now so it's not logical to stay mad, right? Right?? That's his logic, not mine. We could have had a perfect Christmas tree this year but he killed the tree for nothing. NOTHING! I'm so pissed.

12.26.2007

TGI Over!

I now know why some animals chew off their limbs when they're trapped.

12.24.2007

yuck.

Man, I feel like shit. I've been fighting a headache and the urge to spew for the past two days. I was afraid to take my ambien last night and as a result I was still tossing and turning at 5 a.m.
Dh has been pissing and moaning all day because I'm not laughing and having a good time. I'm ruining Christmas. Geez, why not throw a little guilt and pressure my way. That's sure to make this illness flee in mortal terror. He just asked me if I'd like a little 7up for my stomach upset. I said yes. So he brought me the whole 2 liter bottle. No glass. Nice.

We went letterboxing after lunch. We took Blondie, too. I thought the fresh air and exercise would make me feel better. Didn't. The car ride over to the park nearly did me in. Dh was not happy. I made the effort. That should account for something. Doesn't. We didn't find the letterbox either.

I made the artisan bread this afternoon. The dough had been working for 22 hours. Turned out pretty good for my first shot at this recipe. Nice sharp crust, chewy interior with lots of holes. No tang that I can detect though.

All I want to do is take a very hot shower, put on my snuggies and curl up in front of the fire and watch my annual Christmas Eve Bruce Willis movie. And then sleep sleep sleep. No chance of that though.

12.19.2007

AmityMamaDrama is here!

Oh! You better not post,
if from certain sites,
It's gotta be good,
or you're in for a fight:

AmityMamaDrama is here!

They're making a list,
and checking IPs,
Gonna kick out
members from MDC.

AmityMamaDrama is here!

They see you when you're lurking,
They know when you're online.
They like when you're a sycophant,
So agree and you'll be fine!

So...You better not post,
You better not whine
You better suck up,
and don't cross the line.

AmityMamaDrama is here!

All the lemmings,
the sycophant crew.
STFU
they'll come for you too.

PMs aren't safe
they'll google you too,
They'll bend the rules
it could happen to you.

AmityMamaDrama is here.

The folks from LTG board
remember I&G
The list was quite the drama
from the mole - SCDD.

Oh....You better not post,
You better not whine
You better suck up,
and don't cross the line.

AmityMamaDrama
AmityMamaDrama
AmityMamaDrama
is here!

Merry Christmas everybody!

12.18.2007

Caffeine...the elixir of life.

I made a pot of coffee today. First time in months and months and months. I also tackled the utility/laundry room today. I heard dd refer to it as "the dirty room" recently and thought I better do something about it. What a difference. I rearranged some stuff in there, scrubbed everything down with bleach, dusted, and recycled some stuff. There's actually room to move around now.

Man, this coffee is good! Luzianne and Irish Creme. I'm headed off to the shower to lay some more tile. Why did I ever give up coffee in the first place???? Hmmm, could that be the reason why I'm such a shrew? Nah. ;o)

12.16.2007

I'm a liar.

I hate to lie. Hate it. I avoid it if possible but sometimes it's really not up to me. Not when I have to consider other people. I must confess a lie I made some time back. It was during one of the board crashes. Danica gave us free run of her "soap dish" board. She made me an admin and let me set up a forum for discussion. One time I mentioned 'going back to the 3DBB'. Someone jumped on it and accused us (admin) of having a secret board. We denied it. I said I meant 'back to the drawing board' like the Mr. Peabody and Simon cartoon. I lied. It's ridiculous to expect an admin staff to not discuss board issues in private but people were so wary of the scheming and deceit that was prevalent under the Apiffany reign of terror. I lied and said we conducted board business via email. That was a laugh because loads of times I wouldn't get a response to emails or PMs. So, we had a board. Every once in awhile Camille would get paranoid and move us to a new board. We had a yahoo group at one time. The latest was an Invisionfree board. We were on that one the longest. I'm not on it anymore. I deleted myself when I left as admin at MD. It's probably gone now. I couldn't even access it without a direct link in an email. If I typed the url in my browser it would never come up. It was called divas_digs.
That lie has been bothering me for a long time. We may even have had a private forum at Danica's board for the time we were there. But, we never had a private forum at MD...not since we lost MD to Dana.

12.14.2007

Speaking of IP matches...

I have no earthly idea how the hookabitches figured out that the popcorn hooka was Katie from AW. I didn't get it then and I don't get it now. What really astounds me is the excessive amount of time and energy expended tracking her down. For what? Did anything change by the new found knowledge that, gasp, someone was misrepresenting themselves online? No. Nothing changed. I don't really think it mattered. I think what mattered most was that the hookabitches were right and everybody had to know that. No matter the cost. Those were the diaper washing, ass wiping, breastfeeding days of our children's infancy and we spent it on the web trying to prove that nothing could be put over on the hookabitches. What ego.
Some of us got over that burning need and moved on, entirely and quite blissfully ignorant of the multitude of petty subsequent dramas that have unfolded over the years. Some of us hung on because real life was just a blur of inane chores. Others changed. Others fed off the drama, looking for it in every thread, every post.

Sometimes there was no drama but anything could be turned into drama if you knew just how to spin it. For instance, the GIA forum. It started innocently enough. I noticed that there were three or four mods for that forum and I asked why. Seemed excessive. By the time all the accusations were flung out and the conspiracy theories hatched the forum was shut down, an admin kicked to the curb and members left MD. Why? Because nobody puts anything over on the hookabitches. It's all about control.

What about Stephanie, Kelly, and the CaliMafia? I don't know. I admit I didn't read all the mile long conspiracy laden posts about IP sharing. I didn't care. Why waste my time agonizing over the possibility that some members were having a laugh at KKT {Kelly's Kitchen Table) while logged on to MD? Chat was just buzzing with it. It was the biggest drama to hit MD for quite awhile. Logs were shared, IPs posted, tons of stats and logon times highlighted...but nothing to prove that Kelly was still getting into the restricted forums under someone else's username. No IP matches were made. I didn't see it and said as much. Why did it matter? Kelly was already gone. But the accusation against Stephanie was still made public with absolutely nothing to back it up. And nobody knew what to do. You couldn't just say "Um, are you ok? 'Cause you seem to be taking this all so personal." That would have morphed into it's very own shitstorm of innuendo and mistrust. So, nobody said anything. Finally the accusation was withdrawn and an apology posted followed by the obligatory "it takes a big person to admit when they are wrong" posts. And why? No reason except maybe nobody puts anything over on the hookabitches.

Now it seems that part of that particular drama was my fault because I did not weigh in with my thoughts. I was damned if I did and damned since I didn't. It wasn't my place to say "leave it alone. You can't control what someone does in their own home half a country away." It was a no-win situation all around for me. The beginning of the end. The only reason I said 'don't worry, we'll get that bitch sooner or later' was to let you know, Camille, that I still supported you as a friend. I knew you were mad because none of us backed you up publicly. I knew you were embarassed. Funny how I'm the only one you resented for it. You went out on your own like a runaway train and ran out of track and only had blame left to throw around. I couldn't stop you any more than you could stop Stephanie and Kelly.

And, no, Camille never asked anybody to say there was an IP match when there wasn't. She truly believed there was one. So, saying that I compared her to Apiffany was just another drama log to throw on the fire.

12.13.2007

Cassie

She truly is a sweetheart. I just thought I should say that. She has not allied herself one way or the other as far as I know in the hookabitch schism. I wish she wasn't involved at all because I think she got hurt. She isn't mean spirited in any way. If anyone mentioned in the previous post felt badly for not having stepped forward, it would have been Cassie. And any apology that she may have made, I feel quite certain was sincere. She just doesn't have "cut throat" in her.
I'm sorry that I caused her any anxiety and ruined MD for her.

The Twelve Step Christmas

Real life kind of snuck up on me. I'm still not done with my Things To Do list. The party is on Sunday and I'm not even close to being done. I wasted a beautiful summerlike day yesterday running around town trying to get stuff done. For no good reason. It's all quite pointless really. I'm sitting here thinking of 10 other things I should be doing...laundry, baking, making wrapping paper, actually wrapping gifts, sending out my Christmas cards, getting stuff ready for the Brownies meeting tonight, sewing dd's patches onto her vest, laying another course of tile... I'm afraid all of this stuff will avalanche soon.

But I think it is equally important to get my emotional and spiritual baggage taken care of as well. So, let me dig around in the confession bowl and see what pops up for today. Drum roll...

Ahh, Nicole. Ok. I never apologized to her for my role in the great fake IP address debacle at MD. April approached me and told me to post that I saw the IP match that proved that Nicole was posting at MD. I didn't. Because there wasn't one. April and Tiffany pretended to be Nicole and then swore up and down that it was really Nicole and they had the IP match to prove it. I, like every other hookabitch, sat back and said nothing. I knew if I denied the existence of the IP match then Apiffany would out me as the I&G mole. So I said nothing. I don't know why no one else came forward. When it finally came out and the hookabitches were scrambling to make nice and cover their asses I said nothing. I felt no need to make a public apology to Nicole. And it rather made me sick to see the hookabitches genuflecting and mewling over someone who despised us so vehemently. But what was far worse was the arrogance that followed. Nobody gave two shits about Nicole's feelings and by stepping forward and announcing that they had apologized to Nicole they were able to bask in the glow of the MDers who lavished them with "it takes a big person to admit when they were wrong" tripe and appear to be scrupulous at the same time.

My only regret was the loss of my friendship with Faith/IrishEyes who denounced MD and the hookabitches and never came back.

12.11.2007

Confession is good for the soul....

And I think I'll make a few to round out the year and clear the decks for next year. I just ran across some old C&Ps and they really put things into perspective for me.

I have a couple more yards of fabric to cut for the Brownie Scouts and a double batch of ranger cookies to bake and a load of laundry to fold but then I'll be back. And who knows, if I happen to drink a White Russian or two this evening it could get interesting. I'm of unusually good cheer this holiday. :o)

Why go anywhere when you already live in Paradise?

What a beautiful day it was yesterday. December 10th and high 70s. I opened up all the windows! I took the opportunity to sit outside, load up on vitamin D, and decide on our vacation destination for next year. We've loosely planned on the cruise for September. Dd will be in school but MIL said she would stay here for the week to watch her. We'll also be going back to DC for a few days. If you can't find something to do in DC then there's something wrong with you. I didn't think I'd like it but I did.
For the summer vacation I'm leaning toward Hilton Head Island, Marco Island, or Captiva. Dh was tossing out San Francisco, Boston, someplace in Texas, or even Orlando again. I don't know. It's a tough choice. Plus, we have that Outer Banks thing...Barrier Island Station in Duck.

I think next year I'll get my passport renewed and apply for dh's and dd's. I wouldn't think twice about going to London for a long weekend. ;o)

Dh's friend, Paul, was lamenting the fact that he was going to spend another two weeks in Hawaii. This past summer he went to Hawaii for a bit and then Tahiti for a week. To me, that has as much appeal as Phuket or Guam.

12.10.2007

Liar, Liar, Pants on fire...

Look who's admin again. Back in the saddle and all's right with the world.

12.08.2007

P.S. It snowed!

I have got a blistering headache. Too many white russians around the campfire this evening I guess. We went out shopping with MIL yesterday while dd was in school and had a lovely time. Dd went home with her grandmom to attend a concert and slept over. When she got home this afternoon the little girl from next door spirited her away for a couple of hours.
She had a good time at the concert and got a bunch of books from the library book sale and has had her nose buried in one all night until lights out.
I made the moravian ginger cookies today. What a pita. They turned out ok but required a lot of work. I also made a banana bread this morning. That turned out perfect.
The cable guy showed up this morning to hook up our HBO. We've gone digital. It was either that or lose the analog channels one by one. We got a $20 credit on the bill since the guy didn't show up on time. I don't know how many extra channels we have now but dh is still watching the same stupid shit...or sleeping thru it.
I'd love to crawl into bed right now. It's been a long couple of days and I'm beat down to my new cashmere socks (Thanks MIL!) but my soap comes on tonight. It's still a couple of hours away though. I hope I can stay awake.

12.05.2007

Baby, it's cold outside...

Especially for Rocky. She's decided to go into moult. The poor little naked bird was freezing out there this morning, dwarfed by the other girls with their feathers all fluffed out. I brought her inside in the cat carrier in a pile of leaves and she has ceased shivering. I just gave her a potato chip which she dispatched with her usual gusto. The bird loves junk food. I'll have to pick up some cheese crackers for her this afternoon to cheer her up. The other girls were none too happy about me taking her away.

We brought the tree in last night. It looks much better since I repotted it the other day. It may be too big for the living room next year. I baked cookies yesterday as well. I started making Ranger cookies but discovered I didn't have any shredded coconut so I ended up adding a splash of pina colada mix instead. They turned out really well and have the added flavor of pineapple. Then I made a batch of pumpkin cookies with cranberries and walnuts. Great for breakfast. ;o) I need to mix up a batch of dough to run thru the cookie press. Dd loves the different shapes. I made some with carob last year that I thought were great. They weren't sweet enough for dd & dh. I always cut the sugar too much I suppose. That sounds like a great project for us to do this evening. The kitchen will be warm and cozy anyway.

12.04.2007

The house cookie takes its toll....

I haven't posted in awhile because I've been fighting the urge to throw out some snark. It's been tough! Instead I'll just sit back and let them spin their conspiracy theories into a noose. That should keep them and their bandwidth zizzing along for a bit.

I've been working on the website for the past couple of days. I needed more than a discussion board. I just wish I knew how to do it. This is something I wanted to see MD evolve into way back when but I don't think anyone was interested in anything beyond TPT. That's a shame. There are some very talented women at that board who are slowly backing away due to the climate change. When you hear "if you don't like it, leave" enough times then I guess you'll do it. I'm sorry...the snark leaketh a bit.

So, I've been busy trying to learn this stuff and getting ready for Christmas. The shopping is more or less done. Now for the baking! I've been putting off the cookie leg of this Christmas journey because I have zero willpower. None. Even the thought of a cranberry walnut oatmeal cookie is making my stomach rumble. I know I'm going to have to gird my palate and fight the siren song of the cookie. But I'm weak. Damn you real chocolate morsel!