Sassy Sunday - on a Monday (11-15-10)

Good morning everyone!  Thanks for stopping by.  First, I'm sorry to be a day late on my post.  The thing is, I don't have my own computer and Barb spent a good part of the day working on hers.  She had to make up an exam for her students then she made up a game to play in class.  It's a Jeopardy game with questions from the chapters on the exam.  The students love it.  After she did it the first time, the students begged her to do it again.

Then before I could get on the computer, the other dogs and I got to take a trip to the dog park.  I've never been there when there were so many other dogs!  It was great.  We ran.  We played.  We sniffed.  It was great.  Here are some pics.

Chili running like a maniac

Look at all the dogs!

Ginger by the agility equipment.  We need Ace to show us how it's done.

Doesn't it look like we had a great time?  The only problem with this dog park, which is the closest to our house, is that it is about 15 miles away.   We need one in our town.

There's a bit of a struggle going on in our house right now.  The parents are telling the kids that they watch too much TV and play video games more than they should.  So yesterday Dad told the kids to turn off the TV at noon (they'd been up only a couple of hours but had done nothing but sit around in their pj's and watch TV) and they couldn't turn it back on until dinner-time.  (Not during dinner, mind you.  They turned it on while Mom was cooking.)

You should have heard the complaints out of those boys!  They had NOTHING to do.  But somehow they managed.  They played outside with the neighbor kids.  (Although the youngest tried to come in and get a Wii game to take over to the neighbor's house to play.  Saying the neighbor kid insisted.  It didn't work).  The played in the basement with their legos.   They have been working on a battle scene down there for months.  Their newest creation: a zip line.  Check it out.

They've got a great mix down there of toys.  Legos from several sets (Star Wars and Indiana Jones pieces in this pic).  They've got dinosaurs.  They've got ninjas.  They've got boxing robots.  And they've got a ton of plastic soldiers.  Kind of fun.  And they put it all together without the TV!  Amazing.

Well, speaking of those kids, it's getting on about 7 so it's time to get their lazy butts out of bed.  Chili usually helps with that.  Barb puts her up in their beds (a top bunk and a loft bed) and she tells them to get up.  I'd help but I can't jump that high and Barb says she can't pick me up.  Hmmp.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Love,

Sassy

Random Tuesday

Hey All.  Thanks for stopping by.  I thought I'd join Keely in a little randomness.  I haven't been playing much lately.  Go check her out, she's always worth a visit!

I hate bulging!  Especially when it involves the disks in my neck.  There is pain.  And maybe worse than the pain (or maybe not) is the crunching sound.  Bone on bone crunching coming from the inside.  and very near by ears.  Yuck.  I hate that sound.

Pain can be a real downer.  Not that it's excrutiating, super bad, but it's bad enough.  So the doc has referred me to the pain doc.  And he can see me.  IN TWO WEEKS.  So I called the doc back and he gave me some pain meds.  Alot of good that does me.  I have to get up in front of a class of undergrads every day and talk about biology.  Wouldn't be a pretty picture if I was high on tramadol.  So I can only take it at night.

On a good note, I picked up some nice veggies from the "hippie farm" (as my kids call it.  it's a co op).  But now what do I do with the kolrabi?  And there's only one small eggplant this week.  What does one do with one tiny eggplant?  My favorite is the spicy salad mix.  Some of the whimpier share holders complained it was too spicy.  It's got like mustard greens and some other stuff that has a bit of a bite to it.  So now it's separate from the non-spicy salad mix.  That's fine.  I just mix it together.
This was our last pick-up of the season.  I'm gonna buy another share for next year.  (if I can get hubby to agree)  It's worth the 20 miles every other week to get organic "hippy-grown" produce.  (they aren't really hippies.  just have that long hair, non-arm-pit-shaving, tree-hugging air about them.  but they are really nice people.)  Plus, I've tried some new produce this year.  Have you ever eaten ground cherries?

maybe I'll take a pain pill while I'm eating my hippy-farm food tonight!

Mexican jumping beans.  My 2 younger boys are begging for them.  And the youngest one doesn't even know what they are.  He just wants them.  But these two are always at each other's throats.  Fighting and whining and yelling and complaining.  So I told them if they could go a week without fighting, I'd buy them.  We have started our week over every day since then.  Boys.

I wonder if pugs are known for emptying their anal glands at odd and inopportune moments?  If you've ever been around anal gland juice, you know what I'm talking about.  I mean, yes.  If you scare a dog or get them really upset, it might happen.  But it just comes out of Chili's butt sometimes for no reason.  Geesh that stuff smells bad.

K.  Well.  My neck hurts, I have produce to put away (wonder what I should do with my tomatillos?), the dishwasher needs to be emptied and refilled, the washer and dryer both need to be emptied and filled, (kid just walked in and asked for a snowboard?).  So thanks so much for stopping by!!
Barb

Sassy Sunday 11/7/10

Happy Sunday, Everyone.  This is Sassy.  See what I put up with?  Those little boys were having such a great time covering me up with the blanket.  I was annoyed.  But I love them, so I let them.  As long as they aren't trying to look in my ears or cut my nails, I'm ok.  But I draw the line at ears and nails!  Barb says I'm a drama queen.  I say I'm just The Queen.

I got to see Jackie from Hope Rescues yesterday.  I heard her tell Barb I was pretty.  And that my face reminded her of a seal's face.  I think seals are cute.  I happen to think I'm cute too. :)

Barb wrote a question on the message board this week for everyone to answer.  It says to list one thing you are thankful for.  One of the kids, the middle one, wrote "my dogs".  I love that little kid!!

It's starting to get cold here.  I'm not sure when the big people are going to finally turn on the heat.  I hear them tell the kids to put on a sweater.  Luckily, I've got fur.  And the occasional blanket thrown on by the kids.  By the way, if the kids leave the blanket on the floor, Chili pees on it.  That's true for jackets and any type of laundry.

Well, I don't have much else to tell you about.  I hope you have a great Sunday!
Love,
Sassy

Their Mom is a Geek

Well, I took the time to take pictures of our Halloween feast.  So I might as well show them off.  I try to do fun stuff for holidays.  I think these are things people remember from their childhood.  Like at April Fools Day when we made "fakon and eggs" out of candy and "cupcakes" out of meatloaf and colored mashed potatoes.

So here it is:

Our Sea Monster Sandwich

Monster biscuits to go with our soup

Watermelon creature

Ghost witches and spiders for dessert

 Not too heavy a meal.  Just right to fuel up the kids for trick-or-treating.  Now it's time to get all those decorations down.  I don't mind decorating.  It's de-decorating that I hate.  Especially getting the fake spider webs out of the thorny bushes.  Off to find some gardening gloves.

Have a great day!

Macro Monday

Pumpkin Guts

Here's my contribution to Macro Monday.  See some other great pics here!  (By saying "other great pics" I wasn't trying to claim mine was great. :) But I think it turned out ok.)

Sassy Sunday 10/31/10

Happy Halloween!

Hey Everyone.  Sassy here. :)

Happy Halloween.  In our town, trick-or-treating happens the night before Halloween.  Sound weird?  I thought so too.  But the reason is that there is a hugely popular parade in our town on Halloween.  Everyone goes.  There are tons of floats.  Contests for the best ones.  Candy is flung to the huge crowd.  There's a huge traffic jam trying to get to and from the parade.  It's "the thing" to do on Halloween.

So yesterday the family carved pumpkins with the next-door neighbors.  Here are some of the pics.

Youngest child's jack-o-lantern and oldest child's jack-o-lantern

Middle child's jack-o-lantern (puking)

Artsy-fartsy picture of pumpkin guts

Both of our trick-or-treaters chose to wear a blood-filled mask.  Pretty cool, with the blood streaming through the mask.

Ginger and I had to stay up in the bedroom during the peak trick-or-treat hours.  Seems the family gets annoyed when we tell them someone is at the door.  Ingrates.

Well, that's it for today's episode of Sassy Sunday.  Thanks for stopping by!

Sassy

Freaky Friday

Hey All,
Today I'm home with a pukey kid.  Yup.  Got a nudge at 4am.  "Mom", he whispers, "I threw up in my bed."  So we take the bed clothes off and put down a blanket on the mattress and another to cover up with. No, I didn't remake his bed.  It's a pain-in-the-ass bunk bed.  I hate making that bed and I'm not about to make it at 4am! [note to anyone whose kid is begging for a bunk bed or a loft bed: don't give in!  They are such a pain.  Especially the loft bed, but the bunk bed is almost as bad.]

I go back to bed.  Just an hour and a half later (and a full half hour before the alarm is supposed to go off, "Mom, it happened again.  Can I just get in bed with you?"  "No" I reply (thinking I don't want him to puke in my bed too).  "Let's just go downstairs."

I got him an empty plastic wastebasket (because this comes so suddenly he doesn't have time to make it to the bathroom) and listened to him puke to SpongeBob in the background.  It was cool.  I especially enjoyed his big brother, the teenager, get grossed out and have to leave the room.  "It's just puke." I tell him.  "Just wait til you have kids."

So.  Wanna know what else is freaky?  I've got a beautiful bearded iris in bloom in my yard.  Here are some pics I took the other day.  Now this particular bloom is fading, but there are two more in full beautiful bloom.

In case you didn't know, the end of October is not the time you usually see iris in bloom.  It's a very confused flower.  I asked a friend, who is knowledgeable about this kind of thing being the director of a fancy botanical garden and all, and he said sometimes the soil temperature can make this happen.  I just hope it will bloom again in the spring.  Anyone had this happen?

Gave an exam in my class this week.  Range in grades 40 to 104 (there were 4 points extra credit on the test).  Hmmmm.  But the average is over 80, so most of the students did well.

No foster dogs lately.  We are concentrating on getting Chili, the angelic face at the top of this post, to stop pooping in the house.  Don't you just want to kiss that smooshy face?  Lucky for her she's so cute.  

We are also concentrating on Ginger.  She has the bad habit of barking and chasing people as they walk or run by our house.  She even nipped at a neighbor and made a hole in his shorts.  Luckily she didn't bite him and break the skin.  But she can't be doing that.  She nips at my legs when I run too.  And the kids.  She's part border collie, so it's in her genes.  But if you don't know there's an invisible fence, she can look pretty scary.  So we are taking her out on a leash.  It's a pain.  Anyone have a suggestion?  

Wanna know what she did after nipping at the neighbor kid?  He's 15, by the way.  He stopped and said "Ginger!  What are you doing?"  So she sat down, wagged her tail and waited for him to pet her.  Stupid dog.  

K.  That's it for me today.  Hope you're having a great day.