So as I got my coffee Geraldo was on the news.  This reminded me of my desire to chastize the world through the medium of my blog for people who shouldn't be famous or allowed to fade into oblivion (I always think of Riff-Raff when I say oblivion).  Here are the top 10 on my mind this fine Friday morning:

 

1).  Geraldo - thank you dear inspiration.  Al Capone's vaults, that's all I should have to say, but I can note the fact that he was basically Jerry Springer and now we give a rats ass what this idiot thinks about world issues?  Really people?

2).  Kardashians, Paris Hilton, and the like... stop it.  Rich shouldn't mean people care what they're doing.

3).  Jersey Shore cast I really don't think I need to say anything else here to defend why you need to just ignore them and start praying they'll go away.

4).  Honey Boo Boo - WTF is that?  I'll point you at the Geekolinks for today (http://www.geekosystem.com/geekolinks-92012/) for how I see this hot mess.  I'll extend my comment to anything little girl pagent.  That's just disgusting.  You're teaching your child to be that spoiled little bitch that we all should have kicked the snot out of in jr high.

5).  Sarah Palin - I'm still hoping she'll just shut up and go away.  Stop making it more difficult for women to present themselves as intelligent, contributing members of our society.

6).  Hideous models - I already ranted about that Rimmel of London commercial buck-toothed nasty thing, but seriously, Ellen Degernes is NOT a model and she is most definitely not a Covergirl.  If she is, you better give me a contract too.  I guess I should also point out that so skinny they look like a 10 year old boy is also pretty hideous.

7).  Lindsay Lohan - she represents all of the actors and actresses with serious freaking issues that should be put out of work until they get clean.  Someone needs to "love them enough" to just say no to employing them while they're a big train wreck.

8).  Any celebrity with a "baby bump" (I hate that phrase/term.)  I don't care.  Millions of women popped out puppied before you - why is society so freaking obsessed with any celebrity having a baby?

9).  Michael Vick - the poster child for athletes who should be shamed out of the lime light.  No, I will not forgive him until he's suffered as those dogs did under his ownership.

10).  ...I'll leave this one open to suggestion and may come back some day and present my #10.  Post your comment, who did I miss in my list?

Well, the good news is I was in bed by 10:30 last night.  The bad news is it is because I skipped a walk.  I also have my full sheet of (college-lined) paper worth of to dos half way crossed off.  It's probably this list and feeling ill prepared that had me awake at 1am and 5am last night.  Now, at 1am you're thrilled because you wake feeling decently rested and peek at the clock to learn you still have a whole night ahead of you - YAY!  At 5am you're still excited because you've got a solid two hours, but you also realize you still feel pretty exhausted because you're not dropping down far enough into sleep - BOO!
 
Earlier this week the starter was removed on the Durango, so now we have a bit of a waiting game to see if that does anything for me.  Of course, they didn't undo all of their wiring, so you'd imagine any short or bad action taken along the line could be the issue and removing the starter wouldn't do diddly for you.  I also got my allergy shot Wednesday, but I'm totally stuffed, on the verge of a headache, and had an incredibly itchy nose last night.  Sup with that?  It had best fade as we head into the weekend.  I do love the autumn, but not the autumn allergies.
 
Oh, and when I pulled out the tomato plants I think I mentioned that I left the peppers.  I also took down the fencing around the top, so guess who keeps hopping in there and trying to dig.  Little bugger!  I keep telling her thanks for the help but mummy doesn't want the peppers out yet.  Ok, time to get on my morning... that means coffee!

Most every evening this week is booked up.  That bodes for me being a bit exhausted and grumpy by Thursday.  Today's theme was hair. After I work I headed for a long overdue hair coloring.  I've been putting it off for a while, and now that things look a little up I needed to get in there.  I walked to and from, which is a good thing, as I didn't get much of a regular walk in tonight.  I did feel guilty totally skipping out, so I did haul out with Saffy for 20-25 minutes.  That totals me at 40ish rather than 60-70 for the night, but too bad.  I'll get back on it tomorrow.

After that it was time to start ripping out leg hair.  I really want to get back in for another laser treatment, but I am so not committing that kind of cash to something unnecessary just yet.  An hour and some later and my legs are on fire.  At least once the adrenaline kicks in the epilady doesn't hurt as bad and it keeps things handled for an extended period of time.  Yay Italian side.

Tomorrow the remote starter will be disabled on teh Durango.  We'll then see if the battery drains at the same pace.  If so... I really don't know what that means for me.  If it doesn't, then we know it's the starter and I guess my options are to have them remove it (which is an incredible waste of money) or to put a kill switch on the line.

Where did you go weekend?  Always in a blink of an eye, right?

Saturday night I cleaned up after my walk just in time to head to OperaFest.  I got tickets from work, so I went.  Opera isn't exactly my thing, but it was pretty decent.  Of course, the retardedness that followed was displeasing.  I managed to drop my keys between the seat and the door as I was getting out of the car.  Of course, I didn't realize that until I went to leave and couldn't find my keys.  Gratefully Beff was there, so I was able to get her copy of my house key to come back and get my spare keys.  I really really really hate making stupid mistakes.

So, today I headed to Altoona after jumping the Durango.  I've pretty much decided I need to call the place that put in the starter or the shop and have them put in a kill switch for the damn starter, cause it HAS to be what is sucking me dry.  Today it was so dead it couldn't even unlock the doors w/ the remote.

When I pulled in at mom's I noticed steam coming from the edge of the hood.  F.  Popped it and you can tell something kind of sprayed.  Mom called an uncle who came to help, once again I feel like a huge pain in the ass in a way that 1000 thank yous cannot cure.  All in all I got lucky, it was a broken clamp around a rubberish pipe.  With that broken I had antifreeze leaking out, hitting the fan belt and getting kicked up.  I had ENOUGH leaked out that I was pretty much dry.  Note that the vehicle was NOT running hot at that point.  I was a bit nervous coming back up the mountain, but things appear to have held.  *sigh*  It's always something, right?  At least this was an inexpensive something.

I don't know what gives, but I had enough motivation (before my coffee) this morning to pull the tomato plants.  Over 120 more tomatoes off the vines and waiting to turn.  Quite a few were significantly smaller than the norm from those plants.  I wish I could have just two more months of nice weather across the course of the growing season.  Cursed PA.  I did leave the peppers in, as I am really hoping the couple that started there will grow a little more before I pop them.  So they, along with some of last week's pullings are crammed back into a garbage can to be hauled.  It's clear that Richland has stopped collecting branches and clippings, so I think if I stuff the garbage can every week until Christmas I should be able to get the garbage guys to take all of the clippings/branches, that have been building since the last snow storm.

Still walking every day.  Had a small drop in weight (4lbs), but that halted again too.  Lots of little things I need to get to.  Time to start a to do list and keep myself honest.

Mmm tomato branch smelling hands :)

I neglected to mentioned that the first major mound of tomatoes are sliced up and in the freezer, waiting for the remainder from the vines to make a batch of meat/meatball sauce.  To me, this was no small feet to squeeze in last night in addition to some running that needed done and finishing my walk.  I even got a letter of recommendation cranked out!  Yay for small advances!

I feel so freaking busy!  It's been an ups and downs type of week.  I have to put it out there that I totally laid myself bare before the big guy upstairs earlier this week... just praying to help me figure out what I am suppose to do and let me hear his message.  By 10am the next day I had my answer... coverage.  Thank goodness.  I know I need to leave at some point, but I'm so not getting the warm fuzzy from other places to make me feel confident in needing to take desperate (read: unemployed) action.

This has happened a few times in my life where there is no doubt to me my prayers were answered loud and clear, I felt heard and feel I heard the answer loud and clear.  With this time also came the message to "plant seeds", so I am trying to be open to what all that might mean and to get on it.  It's like the cliche that you will find someone when you stop looking, same goes for getting in your own way when you just won't allow God to work for you.  It is way easier said than done to pray and put it down and not pick it back up.  If I could only stay focused on remaining in this state of mind and awareness/confidence.

I will continue to save to the best of my ability, but rest assured I went out and had a nice steak and a few martinis to relax and celebrate.  Let the Christmas shopping resume.  I may have found the perfect dress for the holiday party (since I might still get to go) on clearance for only $6 at Ross too.  Yay me.

Friday night I caught up with a few ppl for a bite to eat (just a little bite for me as I had some leftovers to attack prior).  As we sat on the deck and had a spider incident the note that you are always within 5 feet of a spider was made.  *shiver*  Needless to say, do you know how many freaking spiders I saw this weekend?  There was one in the bag of clothes I had packed up last year after loosing weight and countless others as I was pulling the nasturtiums and cutting things back out front to prepare for the fall.
 
No, I wasn't digging through the bag of fatter clothes because I gained weight back.  I haven't, it's been a year, and with much trepidation I am planning to haul them to Goodwill.  That means I needed a count of what was in the bag for tax purposes.  I also bagged up quite a few sweaters, leaving myself with very few, but they were all ones that were a little too snug or too worn or no longer in favor.  I should probably go through my drawers and closet too and get another bag together before dropping off.
 
Thanks to the work out front I have a BIG pile of russian sage blossoms and nasturtium seeds laying out to dry and the house smells quite pleasant.  I was a bit busy with all of that this weekend to the point that I didn't even get the vacuum run, shame on me.  The to do list seems painfully long and keeps leaving me finally settling in to try and run searches etc at 10pm or so, not very feasible or productive at that point.  Ok, I did take a nap on Saturday night, forgive me, but I was wiped.

Yesterday I went from oh crap, you have even less time covered than you thought to wait, you might be good for a year, in a matter of 15 minutes.  Needless to say, even more stuff is sitting in boxes that I haven't carried out yet.  I have to keep telling myself I'll figure it out and I'll be fine, but it's incredibly stressful.  I just keep up the prayer I had in NC and that was to be shown what I am suppose to do and to bring me peace about waiting for it.

 

In the mean time I filled my evening to the brim making cranberry bread (I had a hankering for pumpkin bread the night before but didn't have the right supplies to make it), a batch of lasagna with eggplant, and a pot of sauce with all of the farm and garden tomatoes that were ready to use.  That had me starting my walk a bit late, but when I was done my evening was mostly over and all there was left to do was give myself over to sleep. 

This is a demonstration of why I am simply messed up on basic, low levels.  I get the comments on puppies, kittens, etc.... but human babies, sorry they are just not cute.  Fat and slimey is fat and slimey.  http://www.geekosystem.com/origins-of-cute/

I'm PMSy and just foul with little petty things.  Combine that with my overall (even when not PMSy) sense of doom and yea, I needed to get a good cry on.  I tried to get it started while out walking tonight.  Heaven knows even the rain held off knowing I just needed to get that time in.  Fortunately I did get some time in with someone worth getting time in with and got it going.  Yea, some sh*t just isn't fair (it remains that way) and other sh*t just compounds it.

Had the horrific realization today too that, duh, I wouldn't be able to buy another place w/o two months worth of pay stubs anyhow.  So that greatly impacts any potential to be elsewhere and gainfully employed.  A big downer and factor in a lot of things.  Did I mention it's not fair?  It definitely isn't fair that I've always tried to pay my own way and here I am fearing the future when others just continue milking off of others to have "what they get".  I still don't know what I'm being punished for, that's the frustrating part.  What did I do to deserve where I am?

I snapped yesterday, tired of waiting for promised help from others and heaved the bed from one room upstairs to the other and got a little organizing done.  The old desk is ready to be given away too, so there was some progress.  I'm not sore yet from the effort, but I suspect I will be tomorrow.  Given these types of situations I need to start only helping those that 1). help themselves and 2). step up when I actually confess I need assistance.  That list of people is quite short... Laws, Eggs, you're 110% safe on that short list.

I was up past 2am last night and tonight isn't shaping up to be more restful.  It's already 11:30, I need to shower, and it's storming - storming hard enough that not only is there thunder and lightning (a hindrance to my sleep) but it's knocking out the Directv, another major detriment to me falling asleep in an expedient manner.  I need another three day weekend, but I hate myself a bit for wishing for it given the current situation.

The slight panic dreams have started.  Probably because it's officially September.  Four weeks could change everything.  I also realized if things go down one way... what's the point of making and freezing a whole ton of pasta sauce?

For the first time in quite a while I took yesterday "off" - as in no walk.  I had intended to after getting some housework done but before going out for a naughty evening of food and drinks, but the storms rolled in at just the wrong time.  Saffy gave me a heads up before I heard the thunder.  As the heat has cranked up again the windows are closed and the ac is on, so she heard it first outside and promptly began banging on the door.  Instead of a walk my thunder buddy and I cuddled on the couch for a little while.  No, we didn't sing the song.  It looks less than lovely out there today, so I guess I better get on the walk ASAP.  After the walk I need to do some cooking and maybe some job searches.  I want to box up more of my stuff, but it feels so wrong to shove it all away.

I did get several boxes worth of stuff out of the bathroom.  I can't believe how much of some stuff I have.  What is it about me that won't let me only buy another deodorant or shampoo when the one I presently have is almost out?  You won't ever see me on that hoarders show, but I clearly have some tendencies to stockpile when I spot things at a good price (and can't remember how much of something I have).  There is, of course, still my tons of different perfumes to contend with, that's just a way things will be, but I can focus on using up some of the little superfluous bottles that have just a little left.

I also scrubbed the bathroom and kitchen floors and trimmed back the bush and rose of sharon's out back, filling yet another garbage can of trimmings to take out front.  The pile is getting ridiculous Richland.  I don't get why my clippings have not been touched since April, you're chapping my ass.  Cranked out a few loads of laundry.  (YES, I actually put them away too, aren't you proud?)  Either way I feel like I accomplished a little yesterday.

I had to turn the AC back on, and as warm as it is already this morning I'm betting I'll be struggling to force myself to get a walk in before a little wingy-ding gathering.  In the mean time, my deck needs swept, as it's full of vibrant fallen leaves.  Go figure.  After a pass to scoop, since the lawn is getting mowed this afternoon I'm going to get started inside.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but I'll be clearing the bathroom, boxing up full bottles of things and clearing some shelves off.  Maybe it will have a nice cascading effect.