havocandmayhem.com

I had planned to do a post today about our trip home. I had planned to go grocery shopping. I had planned to trade in some of my used DS puzzle games at Gamestop I had planned to go to the library & check out the last 3 Terry Pratchett books I had planned to then drive out a bunch of long, winding roads to pick the dog up from the kennel. Then I had planned I would come home, edit some photos, finish the laundry & maybe play whatever new game I had bought. This was all planned at 8am. At 8:45, as I was gathering the last of my things for my errands the phone rang. It was the school. Mayhem has lice. Or maybe he had had lice. The nurse said she found dead ones & some eggs and thought I had been treating him for it over vacation.  I’ve never encountered lice. Had no clue Mayhem had them. Couldn’t begin to guess where or when he got them. She said to get some RID or other lice meds & I said “oh I’m on my way Wal Mart & I’ll add it to the list” a...

Today is DH & I’s anniversary. We were married at Oglebay Resort in Wheeling, WV in 1993. This is the part where I want to say all those lovey sentimental things about what a wonderful man I married. But I lean more toward sarcasm & humor and don’t do lovey sentiment very well even though I feel it. It’s just not how I express myself and after 16 years married & 20 years together he understands that. It has been a wonderful 16 years. Things are very different now than we imagined them at the time but I wouldn’t change one of them. DH proposed to me under stress. We’d planned not to get married, just live together. He was finishing up school, looking for work and some TV show or other that he’d watched for years had the series finally that night. All these endings & changes he couldn’t control so I think he grabbed for something he could. He woke me up out of a sound sleep at 1 in the morning (and really you had better be dying or the house burning down if y...

I’m no good at meaningful thankful posts. I come off sappy, maudlin or cynical, at least to my way of reading it but I am going to make an attempt to list the things I am right now thankful for. 1. Modern medicine & VA insurance. Because of both my father can go bike riding, running, swimming, fishing and even wrestle with his grandkids and still have money to live on. 2. The mini van. OMG! The trip down was so much nicer than in the Cruiser. I loved my Cruiser but it was so crowded the past couple years on the drive to FL. I had none of the clausterphobic feel I’d had last year. 3. Internet being like crack. My husband is still employed because even when forced to economize the majority of people will cut cable before giving up their internet fix. It’s become almost as necessary as electricity. 4. My little demons who keep life from getting dull and routine On the non Thankful side I’m not wild about certain developments.  When did the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade beco...

A few people asked about the skin on my DS in my last post This is my DS skin. Matrix Productions WraptorSkinz for the DS Lite. I love these skins. They come in an assortment of colors & patterns, are relatively low cost, come on and off easily & leave no residue. They have them for an assortment of gaming systems & phones. I had several for my Razr phone when I had it. They don’t make any of those styles anymore apparently or I’d link you up. My favorite was very trippy. They don’t make a skin for my Pantech Matrix phone or I’d have one on it. When I some day get an iPhone though, it will be Wraptored. I get paid not one darn cent for telling you this, I’m just sharing a product I am pleased with. Though if you should click on that link & buy that specific skin I do get some cents from Amazon. (insert legal jargon here) Regarding my post on Monday…It is now Wednesday and I still have NOT had any ice cream. My parents have dinner early (which is apparently ...

A few weeks ago my insurance company left a long pre-recorded message on my answering machine. I don’t remember it specifically but the gist of it was: Hey ancient crone! Our records indicate we’ve never had any claims to reject from you for a mammogram. You do realize you are a woman of a certain age and getting older & ought to have your bewbs squished annually don’t you? Oh, we’re not saying we’ll pay for it. This message in NO WAY implies that bewb squishing is a covered service under your policy terms. It might be, but we are not about to confirm that until we absolutely have to. Possibly we’ll have some money left over from fully covering Viagra prescriptions and be able to throw a few bucks your way. Either way, you’re old and should make a bewb squishing appointment with the hospital after referral from the appropriate provider, after getting permission from your primary care physician to see that provider so you can then make the appointment. (Ha ha! That’s $45 in flat f...

For probably the first time in 8 years we managed to get through Virginia without getting lost. Though gas stations remain elusive around Lynchburg. Hotels and restaurants abound but gas stations are hidden from view. I hate going into restaurant bathrooms when all I need is to use the facilities. Like I am committing a crime buy using a bathroom in a place where I buy nothing. Gas stations though expect you to use their restrooms & not buy things. We did track one down eventually for the boys and then found our way right back to the highway. We managed North Carolina fine, though gas stations continued to be elusive. We were able to get on all the various interstates with no confusion. We  made very good time with little traffic. The boys watched various movies and played intermittently with the DS. DH & I listened to The Color of Magic We arrived in Walterboro SC, at 10:30pm along with every other mini van on the highway and finally got one of the last 3 rooms in town...

  Some P365 photos this week. What is in the fridge? Aftermath of a nor’easter Our dog was missing for several days. She is back now New cat bed, or possibly napkin holder   Posing For more weekly winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom Thanks for stopping by

We’re heading out this morning on the 2 day trip to Naples FL. The car is packed, the dog is at the kennel, the cats have been rounded up and the house sitter has arrived (She brought her netbook, I warrned her about the phone problem) We’ve decided on the wander through Virginia and North Carolina route for the beginning of the trip and then cut down 301 to Ocala or Gainsville (we almost always miss the Gainsville exit) to meet up with I75 route for the end of the trip. I predict we will get lost in Danville or maybe Lynchburg because it wouldn’t be a vacation without driving 10-15 miles in the wrong direction. Though maybe for variety construction detours around Columbia SC will confuse us into heading west rather than south. It’s been a few years for that one. The longest part of this 1150 mile drive, mentally, is the 272 miles on I75. Florida just goes on and on.  And it’s interstate so apart from spotting Waffle Houses there isn’t much to do but watch the mile markers go ...

I really wish it would stop doing that. It’s the phone this time. Actually it has been the phone for almost two years now but it comes in waves. Sometimes all those wonderful ‘features’ are the problem. When I grew up (oh here she goes…) in the 70’s, a phone was physically attached to the wall. Possibly if there was a second phone in the house it was ‘portable’ in the sense that you could carry it into another room and plug it into a phone jack there (assuming there was a phone jack there and probably there was not) and then use it, but you were still tethered in place by a cord. Maybe, if you parents really loved you, you might have had a princess phone in your room, which was sleeker and lighter & usually had a longer cord so you could roll around on your canopy bed and hang upside down off the side while talking to your best friend about what this guy said to this girl about this other girl (we didn’t have BFFs back in the day. We had to use whole words). If they reall...

There will be no photos in this post despite the title. Havoc came home with a school project. It is related to their current social studies segment somehow that was never adequately explained. They have to do a time line of their lives. All 6-7 years of it What came home was a couple pieces of construction paper glued together with numbers running along the bottom. The child is supposed to, with parental help, mark milestones or events for each year, they want you to use photos. Parent helps arrange the photos & labels & the child decorates it. Havoc says “Do we have some photos of me to use?” Oh little boy. Are they so prevalent they are background decor in your life now? Have the numerous photo albums, the hardbound book of your play last year and the non stop photo slide show screen saver on my computer become the same as the legos on the floor? Just things you don’t notice? I say “Havoc. Mommy has over 10,000 photos that she knows of and that doesn't includ...

Directions. I live in the middle of nowhere. There is a town to the east of us and a tiny town south west of us in a 20 mile radius. If you double and add some to that radius you get a larger town north of us and a small city south of us. There is one main road connecting all 4 places and we live about 12 miles from that. Everything else is winding country roads. We don’t exist on Google or Mapquest. Our address comes up about a mile & half from where we actually live and on a different dirt road in another county. Directions from that spot to the main road include this bit “turn left onto unnamed dirt road 0.7 miles” which is totally bogus. The road has a name and if you drive about 50 yards further there is a perfectly good paved road that parallels ‘unnamed dirt road’. The kennel we are putting the dog in while on vacation has a similar problem. ( Athena does not stay on her lead run, she gets out of every collar & harness ever made & then disappears for a few hours ...

  The weather was finally enough to rake up the leaves. and jump in the pile   These guys joined us for a game of Hunt the Dinosaur   they were well hidden For more Weekly Winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom . Thanks for stopping by

We think this is a wedding photo. The couple on the right are my grandparents Gertrude & Leo. The couple on the left are Helen & Richard. According to a wedding announcement in the paper those were the names of their attendants. It was a very small wedding on April 17, 1933. It was so small it was not common knowledge. Because it was the Depression, there was little money. Nan went back to live with her parents and Pap went back to live with his parents until they could afford a place of their own. That would take almost two years. They moved in together and formally announced their wedding 1935. The other couple also had married in that time.

Five interconnected thoughts 1. If the county you live in has a freezing rain warning and the neighboring county doesn’t and you live a mile from the county line what are the odds there will be freezing rain near you?  2. Did you know there was a historic storm pounding the mid Atlantic region? I didn’t and I live here. I just thought it was …winter finally arriving. Though admittedly the wind is sort of strong for November. Obviously I only ever glance at the weatherbug on my desktop for the forecast photo & high temp. 3. My special power is that I can find my way anywhere after I have been there once. Any city, any country, even if it has been 10 years, assuming the building still exists, I can find my way to it. Anywhere. Except for the city near where I live. I have lived here 14 years, been in that city once a month for 10 of those and once every couple of months the rest of the time. Yet I cannot find my way to the pedestrian mall. Ever. I always just sort of stumbl...

The school PTO meeting was last night.  I wanted to go, but I didn't want to go. I want to be an involved parent, etc. But I'm not really an 'involved' person. Ask anyone who's known me for more than 3 days and they'll tell you I am not a joiner. I'm perfectly willing to show up & help out but I'm just not good at large group dynamics. I don't do organizations in general, especially not organizations that expect me to go out and harass annoy badger offer my friends opportunities to buy overpriced lovely gift wrap. I'd rather just give them the money directly. "Here's $50, which is more than I will ever raise. Take it & let's call it done for the season." I can't pretend to be enthusiastic about the gift wrap or any of the other junk in the catalog.  I can't see how anyone is. Yet, there they are, just beaming with joy about a faux metal (ie plastic) plate stand that looks really big in the photograph but is, ...

This is my grandfather He served 3 years on a sub in the Pacific during WWII. This is my dad He served 5 years, also in the Pacific, right before the Vietnam war Thank a vet today for their service!

Sunday was beautiful! It was in the mid 70’s. DH went off for a few hours on his new ride with some of the guys and the boys and I raked leaves. With only one rake and one broom it took quite some time. There were a lot of leaves. We made a huge pile. It’s about a 5 foot circle and 3 feet deep. The boys took a long running start and leapt in   And threw leaves   Then the tree branch was noticed and I suggested jumping from it Even these guys joined in the fun and we played Hunt the Dino in the leaves. The stegosaurus thought it would be fun to stay hidden so Mayhem had to burrow through the whole pile looking for him By the time the stegosaurus came out of hiding the sun was starting to set, so we piled the much flatter & more crushed leaves back up  and used them to mulch the nearby trees. I’m glad we managed to get one day of playing with the leaves in this fall. It has been so wet & unpleasant on the weekends lately...

We’re heading on on vacation in 2 weeks and I have some goals I need to complete before then. 1. Confirm house sitter will be home from college when we leave & not 3 days later (the cats will starve & turn to catibalism if not fed for 3 days) 2. Get oil change etc for the car 3. Get annual exam etc for me 4. Transfer my blog to a new host & switch to Wordpress, which means getting my domain away from blogger when there is no means I can find to contact them. Or can a new host do that? Anyone? 5. Decide what I need and find a new host. Do I need 25 FTP accounts? or 50 external domains? 500 email addresses? I just want this blog to have threaded replies. Not run a store or go all Pioneer Woman. I’m happy with blogger otherwise but I’m willing to pay to respond to my commenters better. Host suggestions welcome. 6. Sort out clothing for trip 7. Find ‘surprise’ movie or DS game for boys. I always get them something for the trip down and then just when it’s all bee...

  A some of my daily photos this week. DH got a new bike. It’s shiny Cats spent time in the cedars Havoc and Athena go for a walk   And these guys joined us for dinner at Chili’s. We couldn’t keep them out of the fries. For more Weekly Winners please visit  Lotus at Sarcastic Mom . Thanks for stopping by!

These are bacon garlic cheese biscuits that turned out like bacon scented rocks. I made them last week. Ordinarily when I am trying to work out a recipe variation like this I make them every couple days until I get it exactly as I want it. But right now I am participating in a Skinny Jeans weight loss competition and biscuits 4 times a week are not on my meal plan. I’ve lost about 7lbs in 2 weeks & the only real change I’ve made to my life is to eat lower fat foods and less foods in general. I already exercise 4-5 times a week. Eating less is obviously the missing element in my diet plan. see evil dip So bacon biscuits have to be perfected on Saturdays, which is my ‘free play’ day, as Mayhem puts it. I have to get this done before Thanksgiving. We’ll be at my parents’ place for it and mom allows no one to help with the meal. It’s the traditional meal. Mom knows how to make it. No one can muck about putting oysters or sausage in the stuffing or making savory sweet pota...

My sons have reached that stage in their male development when most of their conversation and anything they deem funny involves the words fart, butt, poop, and underwear. (not trying to be sexist but I know no little girls who do this. This is just reality as I know it.) It is so prevalent that the other day at the trunk or treat I actually uttered the immortal mom phrase: “If I hear you mention your hind end one more time I am going to smack it.” (for full effect imagine slight southern part hillbilly accent saying it. I don’t know why by I often go all hick when telling my kids off in public, especially in Wal Mart, though I sound standard American the rest of the time) Mayhem’s favorite thing right now is to ask “What color is my underwear?” in a silly voice and then crack up laughing at himself. He rarely wears any so I guess that is the joke. He also does not seem to understand the difference between knock knock joke and jokes of the ‘why did the chicken cross the road” ...

There is just too much choice out there and I need to decide now, if not very very soon just what sort of holiday album I am going to do this year. I’ve done shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas for the past 2 years and even though I didn’t complete last year’s album I did get plenty of pages done. But the not completing it bugged me. I think I need to scale back my expectations this year. And possibly my design style. I’m thinking very clean, almost graphic only style with either white or black backgrounds. I’d like to do just graphic only but I know I’ll end up wanting to use a bunch of embellishments on some layouts and that would be jarring in appearance I think sitting amid a bunch of smooth, unshadowed graphic designs. But I really want more of a photo book look than a scrapbook look I think. Then there is the thought that occurred to me that ‘the holidays’ actually started last Friday with the Halloween party at school. Possibly they could start on Thanksgiving, which would...

On November 4, 2008 I wrote this post about how I came back from voting to find my new long awaited Nikon D40 waiting on the porch. Well, 364 days later, I came home from voting to find my new lens waiting for me on the porch. and we get to vote again next year!  So I should start considering what lens I want for then. I also got the Pioneer Woman’s new cookbook!  Yaay! I’ve been considering lenses since I got the camera. I want an 18-200mm zoom but it’s like $600 and the camera itself with kit lens was $400 and I can’t quite make that mental leap yet. I know a lot of scrapbookers who just love their 50mm lenses. But the 50mm that auto focuses with the D40 is about $500 and there is that leap again. Then I read Ken Rockwell’s review of the 35mm -f1.8 and it said things like “A fast, light, inexpensive normal lens for Nikon's DX cameras , especially for use in low-light without flash” and “It is especially wonderful for shooting anything hand-held in availab...

I cracked a filling out of one of my bottom front teeth a couple weeks ago. I was eating a ball of frozen cookie dough (homemade!) and I suppose one of the chocolate chips hit it at just the right angle to knock it out. Last time I broke a filling it was on a frozen Twix bar so you’d think I’d know better but some of us it seems are just doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. This particular filling was a long skinny one on the side of my tooth. Not very deep at all. It didn’t hurt & was just mildly annoying because it was something for my tongue to worry at. But since I had some of my teeth filed a bit for the InvisaLine braces I had a couple years ago, my tongue had been worrying at those teeth anyway. So the 2 week wait to see the dentist was no big deal. Even my usual dental terror didn’t bother to go into it’s usual overdrive 3 days before the event. I was feeling fairly certain there would be a minimum of drilling or just roughing up the area & then a new fillin...

And I'm not doing this year. I did it last year and the year before and the year before that (on a different blog). I just don’t know that I am up for 31 days of posts right now. They have to be real posts too, not just random memes to fill in the spots. At least, that is my personal rule when I do it. Honest to god content posts only, with Weekly Winners the only allowable meme…and one Wordless Wednesday in the month… and one post about how doing all these posts is a such challenge. But the rest must be original content! I don’t know that I have that much original content in me right now. And I’m going of town for about 12 days in the middle of it, with 4 of those days on the road and probably no time to post on at least 3 of them. Unless I post from my phone. But posting from my phone, even with the QWERTY keyboard is a PITA Although…I am starting a class today called Blogging for Scrapbookers .  There is a button for it over there on the sidebar somewhere. It’s run ...

A random collection from around the house this time Fall colors Mushrooms in the yard Pumpkins on the porch (eventually) Trick or Treaters Clone troopers working For more Weekly Winner please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom to see the other participants.  Thanks for stopping by!