BRRRRR....

It dropped to 20 last night and was 22 when Mr. Grumpy left for work to be out in it all day. I need to get my fat ass outside and finish splitting the last of the rounds and start in on that steaming pile of shit... The garden will be very thankful come summer that I did it now, and there is a certain beauty to a frosty (freeze my fat ass off) morning...

But staying in has it's benefits too. Like I can catch up on my reading, I can get laundry done (while blogging!), I can spend quality time with the kids (and make sure the boys don't pee in the house!), and I can make sure our furnace is working...

We have the deluxe model box fan... it doubles as a heat exchanger in winter (to the bedrooms)and an air conditioner in summer (placed in a window)!

I could also start in on the Christmas decorations outside, but I hate it when my hands freeze to the ladder. After checking out Kelly's blog this morning and his bare ass out there hanging lights I would like to have a bit warmer weather. And don't worry Sue I will not be out there bare assed hanging lights! Speaking of neighbors...

Mr. Grumpy shared with me last night that some of his fellow workers (who know the MFMs) told him that these wonderful God loving (gay hating) neighbors of ours have said they will not rest until the world (neighborhood) is rid of us. You would think that if they were that sure that we are secretly trying to convert their sainted little bastards (breeding like rabbits) they would have done some groundwork and research before moving into this gayborhood. Like the fact that there are two of the sodomites living right next door to their hallowed homestead...

or the fact that that there is a lesbian living just down below them... or the fact that there are 2 lesbians living at the end of our street... MY GOD we have them surrounded! But it REALLY PISSES ME OFF that they can move in next door to us and be out there telling people that we do not belong in their neighborhood. And Mr. Grumpy gets after me when I wear my Polygamy T-shirt because it might offend them... PALEEAASSEE...

OK time to go work off some I hate the fucking neighbors energy that I just built up...

Turkey Day!

We had it easy this year, just Mom and us... no big deal... except it is a Kevbear function. But I was good, everyone asked me to keep it simple and I did. I did not polish the silver for 3 days prior to T-Day. I did not go over the entire house making sure everything was immaculate. I did not wash the doggies so they looked perfect and smelled better. AND I did not stress over any of it! But what I did do...

Was make the dining room a little bit more... festive?
I did re-make up the guest room so it was perfect for Mom.

I did trick out the front porch.

I did move my office to the garage & reclaim the dining room for a dining room.

We both cleaned the house.

I did use the good china and just 1 set of the silver S&P shakers (unpolished).

I did cook all day (just like everyone else).

And I did leave dishes to do tomorrow!

The table gets set!

The table gets filled up...
The food gets eaten, the table gets cleared...
The happy campers kick back and decide on which sales need to get hit first thing in the crack of dawn shopping frenzy...
So it was a pretty good day all around this house, a damn fine day!

Best thing; part of the dinner was grown right here by us this year...

Worst thing; Pam & Don brought a lemon meringue pie (A Kevbear Fav) and there is none left!

Time to join the Grumpyisorious and get to bed, and no I am not going hog wild shopping tomorrow, we are having a lean Christmas and I am only getting very practical gifts. Night all...

Westie Wednesday 1

Hi I'm Elizabeth, it's really Elizabeth of Windsor on my AKC registration, but who's keeping score. The Daddies call me Itsie Bitsie (go figure) and all the other doggies call me Queen Bitch. I was born June 9th 1999 back in Iowa and I don't remember too much before the Daddies came, but once they showed up my life improved by about a million percent... well accept for the fact that they also brought home my half sister Victoria. But they got me first, by at least 15 minutes! I used to like Victoria when we were puppies but then I wised up and saw her for what she is. She tries to steal the daddies attention away from the important things in life, like me! I also caught her in the sack with my husband, Bentley... I forgave him, but her... never.
When I was little (and liked my sister) the daddies lived apart so I (and my bitch sister) would live 2 weeks with one Daddy and then 2 weeks with the other. Now for almost 8 years we all live together. It was kinda cool in the old days because we had a beach house and a mountain house. Back then the Daddies were kinda lame, like our first toy was a 7-Up bottle, what's up with that? We (I) got them straightened out and now I get fresh toys and chewies whenever I raise my paw or give 'em the old get me a new toy bark. They are kinda slow, but with the years of training I have put in they finally have it figured out. They have also learned to open the door whenever I want to go out, sometimes I do it just to see if they are paying attention.
I have had 4 sets of pups, it is about my favorite thing to do is have the kids around me. Once in awhile we have a family reunion with all the kids, but the boys always fight and then I have to break it up. I talked the Daddies into keeping 3 of my kids at home so I would have someone to look after me when I get old. I think the Daddies will but they tend to go off sometimes for weeks at a time and I always worry if they will come back. When they go my Grandma comes to stay and she is my third favorite person in the whole world, right after the Daddies! The only bad thing that happens is she brings 2 of my bitch sisters kids to visit and they have the manners of a Saint Bernard. But I put up with them mainly because they are also my youngest son Ripley's daughters. My bitch sister got him a liquored up one night and seduced him, and well... I try not to play favorites but Daddy Kevbear is my favorite. I decided "He's My Man" when I had my first kids, he hung in there all night and never left me once, what a guy! Now don't get me wrong my Daddy Rand gives me Ice Cream so he is about the best guy in the world at bedtime, but I hang with Daddy Kevbear. Sometimes the Daddies call me the Alpha, whatever, I just know "I'm The Mary"! Daddy Kevbear said I got to be the first of "the kids" on his computer cause I was the first doggie they fell in love with... But I know it's because I'm the Queen!
Gotta go chase something, or at least bark at the dark so the Daddies know I'm doing my job. Bye!

Couponology

Today I took an apprentice to the grocery store to teach her how to shop with coupons. When you try to explain it folks just don't grasp all the ins & outs compared to in the store training. So first I went thru the coupons to match up the big ticket items...

And then went over all the ads for this week to see what we needed for Turkey Day. Please know that we only buy what we use and it has to be a good deal too. The secret is our Albertsons takes everyone elses coupons; Safeway, Fred Meyers, Thriftway, Sentry, Ray's, plus their own! So you match up a store coupon, add a manufacturers coupon, put a double coupon with it and some stuff comes out free! Todays biggy was a 15lb ham for 39 cents. This time of year you can get some great deals... here are the biggy coupons used today...

$37.00 off on just three of these. So I took the rookie and her kids for their very first coupon adventure. Since she was just laid off by my old company it was something she really needed to learn. Her total was $95.00... take off $40.00 in coupons and she spent $55.00... not bad for a newbie!

I (of course) am the King Of Coupons so my total was $214.00... take off my (drum roll here) $153.00 in coupons and my total cash outlay was $61.00. Not too shabby...

Even More Rain?

And the first snow mixed in too... It's 35 out now so it will be icy when Mr. Grumpy heads off to the slave state of a job at 6:00 AM, my poor guy. I think I hate his job more then he does. So with it being a rainy / snowy day we hung around the house. I worked on our Christmas letter and the other half caught up on EBAY. This is our second Christmas letter and while I despised them for many years the logistics of writing 200 or so messages just got to be overwhelming. What with the baking, shopping, decorating, wrapping, planning the ultimate Christmas Party... and oh yeah work too.

We have finalists in guys wanting the houseboy position. After laying off the last housekeeper we could really use some help around here with the chores...

This is Scott and he knows how to heat up a kitchen...

Matt says he is good with wood and trees and stuff in the garden...

Craig says he is great with clothes... both in, out & folding...

Rod loves a pool and promises to work really hard...

So it's a hard call. What I was hoping for was a little old Mexican lady who could clean & cook & teach us some Spanish. But since we cannot seem to find the perfect housekeeper we might have to go to the B list with one of the above... What do you think?

And the very bestest thing that happened today was Max (major hero material) delivered another load of shit for my gardens! I had forgotten he was coming, he had not, and then he gave me a ration of ---- about my being a fair weather gardener. I never should have given him a break on the jock strap photo...

Tomorrow Couponology!

A Wet Day

It is one of those days when it is wet and muddy outside… which means I am not finishing up splitting the last rounds of firewood and I am not hauling the manure down the hill. If I was not so worried about twisting an ankle again & having another gout attack that is what I would like to be doing… but it is muddy… So I did real estate (work stuff) this AM and will spend the rest of the day cleaning and getting ready for company on TURKEY DAY! Mr. Grumpy has volunteered us to be the (as usual) house were all families come for holidays. I think (know) it is because he is so very proud of my (obsession) talent with the holidays. But this year there is this one little problem… The dining room table is the new office (at the moment), so I think I will probably move it out to the garage for the holidays at least…

I went by our CRR office again yesterday to check on some office space and I was getting ready to leave I turned around and was face to face with…

Nope worse then that… it was the crazy neighbor, just inches from my face and frothing at the mouth… She apparently has gross oozing sores all over her face these days. I had not seen this new development; she told Mr. Grumpy that it is a medication reaction just recently. Someone else mentioned it was a visual sign of craziness (I agree)… I feel very (happy) sorry for her as I have done nothing ever to her, but I am now on the hated neighbor list, there are a dozen or so of us on it…

Word is now officially out that my old office will be closing November 30th (my birthday), what a nice present for the Kevbear... should have given me that raise... I am sorry that the agents have been given so little time to figure out what to do, but I suspect that is the plan (no time to decide) so they will stay with the company. Not like they are being pressured... One a bright note!!! I have decided to institute WESTIE WEDNESDAYS where I will introduce the doggies (one per Wednesday) by age with pics and stories!

I am sure wishing some winter garden catalogues would come… too early still…

Have a great weekend! I will be thinking of some other home project I could be doing...

The Footprint Report

After reading Scott-O-Rama's post and be shamed into finishing changing over the rest of our light bulbs to CFIs we decided to check out our energy usage now, compared to a year ago & see how we compare here to the rest of the USA. The only thing the PP&L electric website could recommend is my shower pattern... the is NO WAY at this point I will start with the Navy Shower routine. So after realizing we had done everything we could on the home front a year or two back I compared us to other Norteamericanos on our carbon footprint...

I was ready to gnash my teeth and buckle down to doing something more... I was surprised! The average Norteamericano family of 2 adults sheds between 7500 - 10,000 tons, yes tons of carbon each year for our bloated lifestyles. We came in at 1700 - 2,400... the numbers range because I used a few websites and the counts came out differently on national average & us. So it was a big surprise that we already use only 25% of the national average. And yes I was honest about our traveling. I think the main contributor to our low numbers was...

the Prius, and the Honda being a 4 cylinder stick. Contributing major factors were that we rarely use the clothes dryer (love the clothesline!) and try to heat with wood, and rarely use the air conditioning part of the heat pump. The garden & orchard will play a bigger part as time progresses. It was on the plans to have a solar water heater on the roof this year, but what with the Real Estate meltdown... it is on the agenda for next year...

So dear Readers... how are you doing?