havocandmayhem.com

The tower? Still up, but preparations for the replacement pole installation have begun. I’m considering sabotaging it during the night. I think God is inspiring me to do so. Friday I had to make a trip to Target to get the boys more underwear & socks. They wear the same size socks & underwear. I don’t mind them pulling socks from a pile at random but the idea of interchangeable underwear bothers me. So I made an executive decision without consulting the minions. As of now & for as long as I am responsible for the purchasing & washing of their underwear - Havoc wears briefs and Mayhem wears boxer briefs. Their wives and/or girlfriends can make whatever changes they wish once they take over those responsibilities. Saturday we received a state refund check for $258! Yay! Sunday the water heater died and will cost $252 to replace Booooo! Also Saturday we made a trip to a local salvage/junk yard. Some photos are on my previous post. We’re building a mud...

We are planning on building a mud room off our porch this spring & we’re really really cheap. So we went to a local salvage yard to see what sort of used windows we could find. I love salvage yards! They are stuffed with such random stuff. And I get to play with gritty, faded, nostalgia-y effects. There are plenty of windows, some of which have whole panes of glass. There were rusty old sleds An ancient washing machine, with mangle some tractors A graveyard of toilets and this totally random box of old record albums in among the cabinet doors. For more weekly winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom . Thanks for stopping by!

(I’m trying out some ideas about redoing older posts from the Better Blogging class I am doing this month) This was originally posted in Aug 2008 & refers to an event from the previous year. Worst Dining Experience Ever! At least, it was for the people around us. We were not exactly thrilled by it either. We were visiting friends in Baltimore for a weekend. We had gone to the Baltimore Aquarium and then decided to visit a casual & inexpensive seafood restaurant for dinner. There were 12 of us - 6 adults (over 30) and 6 kids (under 5). We were, or course, every waiters worst nightmare. And we recognized that fact.  Every one of us had, at some point, put in a year or more in the restaurant business. We made sure to call ahead, to arrive at the family dining hour of 5pm, to bring our own sippy cups, goldfish and some toys. Had the restaurant held up their end of the deal I think it would have been a much better experience for everyone. But they didn't; s...

I cannot remember the last time I did a post about search queries. Probably the last time I bothered to look at my analytics & since I only seem to do that in months with a F in them, it’s been almost a year at least. This blogging class I am taking has you look at your analytics rather more often than I am accustomed to doing. My queries are not really all that interesting, which might be why I rarely do these sort of posts. If I had queries like “Sewing head of llama to lampshade” or “samba pickles chainsaw” like I ran across for others, I would do this much more often. 52% of all queries are for just havoc 18% are for stacey havoc Most of the rest are from perverts, with sex naked nude being added to various spellings and combinations of stacey havoc and mayhem . Those queries all show 00:00:00 time spent on the site, so I’m hoping they knew I wasn’t what they were looking for & didn’t visit. But there were a few interesting non-perverted query strings "w...

Yes. A gravy boat. Though mine is not at all floral. In fact it’s just plain glass.  This particular gravy boat is $75 and all my plates & bowls put together probably didn’t cost $75 because I buy everything on excessive markdown from chain stores & not from places that sell ‘china’. Suddenly, it seems there are sauces everywhere in my life. I buy them, I make them, I freeze them, and I thaw them out. This seems to be the Year of the Sauce. I’ve always marinated things but I never took it to the next level, where you set aside some of the marinade for a pan sauce. Also I usually broil things and the broiler pan does not lend itself to pan sauces. But suddenly I am cooking on the stove top. DH finally leveled the stove & all the liquid no longer pools on one side of the skillet & food cooks more evenly now. I’m not going to tell you how long the stove has been out of level. Longer than I have had a blog though. Plus, I learned to make sauce from...

**primary news** DH & I discussed our various options for Spring Break. It turns out the train idea has some merit. Not all the way to Florida, but the idea of going somewhere by train in general. We had discussed that this year, for the winter holidays, we might, just might , take the train to NYC for a few days. I think it would be fun to spend a few days there when all the tourist spots are decorated & the boys would love the train ride. Applying that  idea to April we are thinking of taking the train to DC for a day. It’s a 90 minute train ride & it’s be $90 for the 4 of us round trip. Sure we could drive it, save the $90. But there is gas & parking & metro fees, since we won’t drive into the city. Plus the non-monetary costs of sitting in traffic, driving around parking garages that are actually totally full but failed to say so and the associated costs of whatever shops are in whatever strip mall we stop at for supper. The train gets us into DC a...

It’s February & at this time of year I like to go online and amuse myself by pricing airline tickets to Florida for the kids’ spring break. This is generally a purely mental exercise because I loath flying. Airports stress me out. Airlines with their baggage fees and change fees and general piss poor customer service stress me out too. And lets not even get started on Homeland Security. I have to send everything UPS to my destination because I refuse to pay luggage fees and assume everything I want to carry on is probably forbidden. First I have to overcome all these mental hurdles to even bring myself to visit ohmygodourpricesaresolow.com or whatever site to compare fares. Then my personal flight restrictions kick in. 1. No early morning flights. While there are 3 major & two minor airports in a 100 mile radius of me, most of them are at that outer limit & I am looking at least a 90 minute drive, probably more due to traffic, and since we have to be there at le...

Monday when I checked the mail it included a package for me from a far away land. Packages from far away lands are the only decent things the mail ever delivers and they are very few and far between, so I was elated! The far away land was the UK and the sender was my long time bloggy friend Mel, of I Speak Melsh . It was a container of mixed chocolates! Which is a wonderful thing to receive unexpectedly on Valentine’s Day FOREIGN CHOCOLATES at that! +2 points for the exotic nature of the candies. These were the varieties The boys were instantly fascinated with them. Though because Snickers is common here it was immediately ignored. They were also somewhat disappointed the different color Milky Way wrapper did not hide a different flavored Milky Way but instead had a 3 Musketeers Bar in it. The Mars bar was the Milky Way. Two countries, separated by a common language. But it did taste a bit different. Why? No high fructose corn syrup. These candies were made wi...

I wouldn’t say God Him/Herself wants me to keep my towering blight on the landscape, but… Thursday's removal was thwarted by snow – an act of God And Monday’s removal was thwarted by 40MPH wind gusts – also an act of God What I will say is - circumstances certainly do seem to point toward a certain Divine interest in the topic. Another attempt will be made next week. I wonder if it will rain? Also, I got a package all the way from England yesterday! More on that tomorrow. The winds keep blowing & the power will no doubt go out any time now. The Divine might be inclined to let me keep the tower, or They might just want the pleasure of taking it down Themselves.

Havoc got sick with a stomach bug Tuesday evening, threw up until midnight & missed school Wedneday to sleep. Thursday there was almost an ENTIRE INCH of snow on the ground so naturally, school was closed. (ok, not naturally, the county was actually doing rather well about not freaking on the snow thing until this). And Mayhem came down with his brother’s  stomach bug. Which was no end of a bummer to him because it totally blew the snow day & since it hit him at around 11am, he was fine to go to school on Friday. Thursday was also supposed to be the day the tower came down. But due to the snow & winds they put it off until Saturday. Saturday morning I got hit with the stomach bug, but just stabbing agonizing cramps. No ‘activity’ as it were. So I spend the day in bed with my heating pad wishing whatever was tearing around in my insides would just pick an exit and LEAVE already; in between bouts of dizzyness, aches, pains & lightheadedness. (DH practically ...

We had a snow day this week and the boys dragged out the Thomas trains for the first time in a couple years. They put together a big track Everyone helped But diesel 10 was unimpressed with the Jedi’s efforts For more weekly winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom Thanks for stopping by!

I have a task this month that I am SOOOOOO not looking forward to doing. My bank card expires this month. Do you know how many things are paid through that card? Neither. Do. I. A couple places have been nice, proactive, and sent me notices reminding me the card they have on file is about to expire. I’ve even kept some of those notices. One of them was the auto insurance & I can only say “THANK GOD” because I thought they were auto debiting us with the account number, not the card and I would never have contacted them with the new card number until I started getting “OH MY GOD YOU HAVEN’T PAID US” notices and I would have been all indignant because they HAVE my information or how else have they been getting paid all these years? I’m a set it & forget it bill payer in case you haven’t noticed. I’ve got my life arranged so the only bill that fluctuates even the slightest is the phone bill & I auto send them $2 over so if I don’t look at the bill for a few months...

I’m thinking Havoc is starting his teen-rebellion-goth-phase a little early. 8 being a little early in my mind. Havoc wants his ear pierced. Maybe both, maybe just one so he’ll have a non-sore ear to sleep on. I like that he is considering that his ear will be sore for awhile & ways he might cope with that. Obviously he has put some thought into this. He wants an axe or a sword or a ninja earring, though he understands he has to wear a basic stud for 6 weeks. “Boys can have earrings. They are not just for girls.” he tells me. And I can’t argue with that because it’s true. One of his male classmates recently had an ear pierced when he went with his teen brother to get his ear done. Then I came home with grey nail polish and Havoc wanted his nails painted because “Grey is a boy color. Like black. Boys can paint their nails, not just girls.” And I can’t argue with that because that’s true too. Boys can also have long hair if they want and some boys even wear EYELIN...

Martha, the crafty voice in my head, has retired for the moment, pleased with the chalkboard paint project. But while was heaving a sigh of relief at that, Ambition suddenly appeared. Ambition is a pain in my butt. Unlike Martha, Ambition knows exactly who he  is dealing with & is well aware of my lack of motivation. Ambition is having none of it right now. It all started out innocently enough, I was reading a website (not pinterest.com for a change) and they were talking about a 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge they were about to begin on Feb 7. And Ambition said “Ah HA! you need to do this” and I whined “But I don’t wanna monetize my bloooooog! I just wanna have a commuuuunityyyyyy” and Ambition said “Geez, Martha and the Insecurities are right. You are pathetic, and lazy. No one is expecting you to become the Pioneer Woman. Just try the self promotion thing for a month. And it’s February, so it’s a short month. At worst you meet some new people & ma...

I did well with my photo project last month. I had 16 topics to start with and ended up not taking a macro shot, but I added menu planning & gas prices so had 17 photos at the end of the month. We’ll see how I keep up this month. This is the menu board from last week. Sunday to be precise Still left to make this week on the list is everything from lasagna-rolled on down. A rare example of me following the order of the list. I still have no idea what to cook in the crock pot. I’m thinking beefy lentil soup. I made marinated steak bites for snacking during the game last night & have plenty left for soup. But I do need to run out & get some root veggies to add to it. But I think a crock pot is sort of unnecessary. It’s not like I am not home from 11am every day. I can easily watch a pot on the stove & you don’t get that ‘watery’ taste everything I cook in the crock seems to get. I managed a decent self portrait this month & had fun playing with it in Lightroo...

Martha, the crafty voice in my head, was unsatisfied with my apron making. It wasn’t enough for her. She needed more. Once again I was out on pinterest.com (I never learn) and I saw these photos of walls with chalkboards painted on them. And cabinets with chalkboards on them & one of them had some comment about it being DIY chalkboard paint & you can use whatever color you like. I’ve long thought of getting some chalkboard paint for the inside of a couple of my kitchen cabinets. I want to be able to write recipe ingredients on them when I am cooking because I really have no space to put the book anywhere near where I prep & cook & end up wandering all around my kitchen with every new step. But I didn’t want black. Green might be acceptable. Only nowhere around here sells chalkboard paint in any color. Lowes claims on the website to stock it at both the Lowes ‘near’ me, but neither of them actually stock it. So it’s just been one of those things on the mental list t...

I have a deep, abiding love for things to put things in. I adore purses, backpacks, satchels, briefcases and messenger bags. I even like clutches though I find them useless as a portable accessory. There are great for storage but a PITA when you are out & about. I need my hands free. So when I found this at ThinkGeek .com my inner role player was in heaven It’s a Bag of Holding! It’s bigger on the inside! It apparently can hold a 17” laptop even though it is only 16” long. *I* have a 17” laptop! It can also hold a large 3-ring binder, two college textbooks, two paperback books, Amazon Kindle, iPod, cellphone, cables, pencils, business cards, and spare batteries all at the same time. *I* have all those things! Granted I never carry the college textbooks because I finished my MA in 1992 but at any minute I could need to carry them. You never know when Applied Sociology vol 3 1990 Revised Ed & The History of Old English might be needed. Probably it would b...

It arrived Friday but before I talk about the awesome-ness of the book I have to share the story of it’s delivery. Yes, a book birth story as it were. I ordered this book from Blurb, as I did both my previous 365 books. Blurb ships FedEx now, which I failed to pay attention to in my excitement at ordering the book. FedEx has, 9 times out of 10, had ‘issues’ delivering things to me. Granted, about half the time it is weather related. Like before Xmas when it took them 6 BUSINESS DAYS to take a package the 50 miles from their distribution center to my home. It kept going out on the truck but just not making it to my house until I finally made such a pest of myself they sent some guy out at 5pm to make the hour long drive. (I’m sure FedEx and the tech support folks at my ISP would have *lots* to talk about over drinks. I’m civil but I am insistent). Yes there had been a major snowstorm, but a FULL WEEK earlier & that package was at my ‘local’ distribution center when it sta...