Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

I started working on the year end review like 3 hours ago, but I was distracted. First my nephew came over with his family to get eggs, then he got stuck in the driveway. Our 2nd snow of the year has made most of the driveway a skating rink. I've not been outside of my yard in a week. But then again, I'm on vacation,, so. I'll pick a few random photos to share. Dave shaved. Say that 3 times real fast: dave shaved dave shaved dave shaved. Yep, that's our bathroom and me holding up my cell phone to take the pic. Total time it took me to tell him never to shave again? 30 seconds. He looks like this Brother..........the one I don't like. Miss George and I spend a lot of time together. She has the bum leg,, so she would rather just sit and hang with us. She's a great Mom though, and her two daughters are out and about with her all the time. She will not go into the coop for the night without one of her girls with her. You've seen her in the big blue p...

End of Semester was Friday. I'm done working and schooling til the last week in January. With no money coming for that time, the vacation will be low-key.  The odd thing was how this weekend has played out after all that finals stress and stuff. I don't mean to put more pressure on the family, but apparently I do.  Saturday, I woke up all stiff and sore...especially in my back. As the day wore on, more and more of my joints screamed in pain. We were scheduled to meet Dave's parents about 2 hours away from home for a gift exchange. The ride  up and back were painful, but I wasn't going to beg out of this because of my pain. I took 2 ibuprofens and sucked it up. Dad, Dave and Mom As it was, the visit was good and thankfully brief. I got up about 3/4 of the way through and walked around a bit. It helped. A nap later at home helped more. Sunday found me uncommunicative and grumpy. I think that the entire semester of having to be 'on' and chatty with others ...

Yesterday, my chem class was to take a lab quiz. A precursor to next week's lab final, this was to give students a refresher on how to use chemistry to ascertain what chemical is in front of them. Next week, we will be given an unknown liquid and our goal is to use chemistry to figure out what it is. Prof. Dan hammered it into us on the first few weeks that our lab notes will be key to this adventure. "Keep good notes." he said. So I did. We will be able to use them on the final.  As the resident lab rat, I was chilling in the lab prep room before class when Prof. Dan asked if I could prepare a few samples for him. Turns out a camera crew is in for the day taping a promotional video. I prepped the chem experiment: Something that uses an indicator to tell you what's inside...by using a color change. But here we are two hours later and the video team is still there. It's classtime! UGH. So we wait a bit, then we all go in and the video team says, "We will ...

Remember that from last semester? Yeah. What did that job last? A week? HA! I've beaten that with this semesters' work study.  My work entails streaking petri dishes with bacteria, as well as inoculating broths with said bacteria. I also make more media to put into those petri dishes. Yeah, that's more like what I do every working day Each of these tasks is a skill. Yep, a skill I've had to learn and am still learning. Yesterday's mistake was that I should've set the media I just made into the autoclave and ran it through. TOTALLY forgot about it while I was doing other stuff.  But while I'm perfecting these skills, I'm getting $9.00 an hour instead of minimum wage. So the question I always ask about a minimum wage job with minimum wage skills is this: If I can walk into your job and with about 5 minutes of 'training' DO your job, then your skills are worth minimum wage. I don't think that other people could do what I do with 5 minut...

David and I have been married 16 years this past week. Yay, Happy Anniversary to us! Here's David with my Niece's new boy, Sky. Dave loves babies, they love him. He thinks it's because he has a deep voice and all that hair. Honestly? I don't think how long we've been married it much at all. Some days it feels like we're just married, sometimes it feels like 32 years. I still learn new things about David and about us every day. Case in point: We decided to head to Menard's...(it's like Lowe's but locally owned) for some things. Dave has a list. Twenty seconds after hitting the front of the store, he's off on his own. I spend a bit of time trolling for stuff and then the rest of the 1/2 an hour trying to find David again. I've got some things in my cart and I'm just enjoying some time out of the house. Oh and at one time, the muzak starts playing "Let it Go" from the movie frozen. Now I'm rarely serious, so I'm ...

30 day writing challenge? Screw that. It wasn't near as much fun as I thought. I'll just go back to normal here: Knitting and birds...with a bit of class thrown in. So I'm finished 98% wise on a request from friends of mine to make booties and a hat for their upcoming baby.   I chose the baby UGGS and a pumpkin hat. The hat just got dyed orange so it's not available for photos. The Uggs turned out decently but the pattern needs tweaking if I ever do it again. These are going to be too big for a newborn. It was worth a shot, though. I got in a pissy mood the other day and it got so bad that I couldn't even stand myself, so I took time off the internet and started knitting something  It's the start of a pattern called a heelhead scarf with a bit of change to the pattern. Link to the pattern:  IT'S A FREE PATTERN! YAY! Right now, It is about 2' long, but before I start increasing for the hood part, I will make it another foot, then start. The...

#5 A place you would live but have never visited: Tuscany looks nice, with the exception of all those Italians, LOL. Oh they're probably nice and all that, but I'm not a people person. In reality, any place in the country with a nice view, a good solid home, an outbuilding for my animals and a pond would be dreamy. I often envision my last days living in the valley near my Aunt and Uncle's house up north. It's isolated, and remote. Stash up some supplies for the winter, chop up a forest full of wood and I'd be happy as a clam by myself for the rest of my days til I die. Reality is, Dave's going to go before me due to him being older than me. It's not a comfortable thought, but it is reality. I don't think I'd marry again. As much as men claim to like Old Fashioned women, they like Old Fashioned HOT women and I'm not hot. I'm not even lukewarm. I've got skills, but I'm not hot. onto #6  Someone who fascinates me, and why. ...

This one is 10 interesting things about myself. 1. I'm left handed. When I was little and learning to write, I used to write backwards and from right to left. Apparently Leonardo Da Vinci used to do that and it's called mirror writing. 2. I can speak French, a bit of Spanish and can read sign language. 3. I've never seen line 98℅ of the hottest TV shows going because I just cannot care about reality TV. 4. The only health problems I have is Asthma and crunchy knees. 5. I've got 2 Associate's degrees. Working on my 3rd. 6. I quit smoking in 2008. It was cold turkey. 7. That was the same year I converted to Catholicism. Before then, I was Congregationalist with an upbringing as a Methodist. 8. Of my entire immediate family, I am the only one who would regularly attend church. Even as a child, some Assemblies of God church ran a bus that would pick up kids on Sunday and I would go while everyone else slept. 9. I have a better than average memory. ...

So today is my first kiss and first love.. I honestly don't remember my first kiss. I remember a guy I liked a lot when I was in my early 20's. He was nice, had a good smile and I enjoyed talking with him at work.  One Christmas party, we made out quite a bit and became the talk of the factory for a while. That was the downfall of any relationship we may have wanted. He fell for some chick that was more high maintenance, more pretty, more popular. Problem was that she liked another guy. It's like the all-American youth story ever written. We stayed friends and I hooked up with my son's father... Who promptly left me pregnant, and penniless. The of part about this is when I dream of that job, I am always there trying to find him. In the dream I look down the rows of machines and never find him. After 20 years, I would hope those dreams go away.

My earliest memory is a simple one: I was about 3 and I heard my Grandma Jeanne's voice downstairs. I was so excited to see my Granma that I climbed out of my crib and went down the stairs to see her. What I do remember is the sound of her voice and climbing out of the crib, that is all. But I remember the emotion of being so happy to hear Grandma that I did something I knew was wrong. The second memory I have is not a good one. I've had asthma all my life. At the same age, I had an asthma attack that landed me in the Emergency Room of our local hospital. Back then, it was called the Sisters of Mercy Hospital and it was run by Catholic Nuns. This would be back in the early 70's. I remember a big opening and a lady dressed in a nuns outfit at the opening in this area.  I remember the floors: Brown and white checkered, with those threads in them.  Yep, definitely looked like this, with a bit more brown in it: I remember a gurney, with white bedding on it. I rememb...

OK, no one ever challenges me to any of those things like the 'ice bucket challenge' or so..mainly because I won't do them, then I'll spend 10 minutes telling them why their effing challenge is useless against whatever charity they're pimping $$ for. So this time, I'll challenge myself: And my thing will be to do it in around 5 minutes. So Five Problems with Social Media (FB) in particular: 1. Everyone thinks they're right about everything under the sun and about 98% of the people are actually wrong....about everything. And the other stuff? It is an OPINION!!! Not everyone shares and agrees with your opinion. And when you point out their fallacy/inaccuracy/downright lie or the fact that what they have given is an opinion that not everyone shares and agrees with....you get labeled 'evil' 'stupid''bitch' and then they unfriend you..yeah, whatever. Grow the F UP! 2. LOOK AT ME!!  LOOK AT ME!! LOOK AT ME!! LOOK AT ME!! LOOK A...

What We Ain't Got By Jake Owen We all want what we ain't got, Our favorite doors are always locked. On a higher hill with a taller top, We all want what we ain't got. We ain't happy where we are, There's greener grass in the neighbors yard. A bigger house and a faster car, We ain't happy where we are. All I want is what I had, I'll trade it all just to get her back. She's moving on, but I guess I'm not We all want what we ain't got We all wish it didn't hurt, When you try your best and it doesn't work. And goodbye's such a painful word, We all wish it didn't hurt. All I want is what I had, I'd trade it all just to get her back. She's moving on, but I guess I'm not. We all want what we ain't got. All I want is what I had, I'd trade it all just to get her back. She's moving on, but I guess I'm not. We all want what we ain't got. I wanted the world until my whole world stopped, Yo...

“The Catholic Church has too much wealth. The Pope talks of how people should spread their wealth, maybe the Pope ought to sell off the stuff that the Catholic Church has.”   I’m hearing this over and over and over again right now. So let’s talk this out logically. There is quite a bit of sarcasm involved in my discussion just because everyone pulls this meme out over and over and over and over again and fails to even think beyond the 140 character twitter post. But I DO THINK beyond the sentence and what you get is what goes when you actually THINK about a subject. After the sale, this will be in the bathroom of Bill Gates, good luck seeing it there. First of all, the Pope owns nothing. None of the items in the neither Vatican, nor elsewhere are his. When he became a Priest many years ago, he took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.  He can talk all he wants about selling all of your possesions, because he owns nothing. His experience in his previous l...

I had intended on getting the two goslings outside this morning, but they are under my feet twittering while the rain ensues. There may be time later to get them outside, but for now they are fine. So let's see, some of the fun we've had here in the last two weeks. School started, so I've got that going for me. Biochemistry, Immunology, Phlebotomy and Lab Skills. A full boat this semester. The work is made less due to the fact that I've had experience in the lab and spend two semesters in Chemistry already.  Immunology seems to be challenging for my mind to grasp, but that's what Youtube is for. Phlebotomy? Well! I get to stick people and draw blood. I'm only nervous about doing it correctly. Last weekend we went to the County Fair and it was blazenly hot. As we trolled around looking at animals and chugging water, we sweated and sweated and sweated. While near the food aisle, Dave pulled me over to the Italian Ice guy as I started to look at bit peaked. A ...

Today's Meme is more about the ability of some people to purposely stay stupid. I just came across a report where someone claims that Huggies wipes has glass in it. All I can think about at this time is how FUCKING STUPID people have become. I mean, REALLY! Think about this for a second.. no I mean it: THINK ABOUT THIS! 1. WHY would Huggies have glass in their wipes?  What benefit would that be to the wipe itself? NONE. 2. Does everyone instinctively think that everyone else is trying to harm them with a product? Yeah...I got over that when I was 8. I used to think my parents were poisoning me with those dark krispies in the Rice Krispy box.   Much as it is your wettest dream to think that corporations are just out to harm as many people as possible, let me reassure you that IT JUST IS NOT TRUE. STOP IT!!!    Another time where common sense and about 2 seconds of thought would render that untrue. Companies are out to make a profit, yes? How can they make a p...

This type of meme is the one that cracks me up quite a bit because you're thinking to yourself, "Who's FOR it? An idiot? I don't know anyone who is out there going 'YAY HEROIN!!'" Seriously, I've seen this same meme with different subjects, "Click Share if you're against: Child Abuse, Pet Abuse, Drug Abuse, Spousal Abuse...etc." Dude, no one is FOR these things! Oh and just an aside, if you STILL have that rainbow filter over your picture, TAKE IT DOWN...your 10 minutes of ADD advocacy of the cause du jour was over a month ago. Now you just seem like a lame asshat that forgot to jump off the bandwagon when it left your town. No worries though, I'm sure that there will be some cause du jour that will allow you to happily pimp out how awesomely tolerant you are soon. (Cause du jour means 'cause of the day' which means whatever the media is pimping out to be the thing you need to focus on today. I'm sure there's ...

It's another hot day here in South Central WI. I've got the two goslings out in the cooler mornings learning how to be goslings. I had hoped to foster them out to new Moms by now, but everyone is kinda "meh" about it. Ah well. While I wander with the flock, I spin and the kids graze. Well, actually this is their first attempt at grazing today. They've been out 2 days now and this is the first time they realized they should be eating what they're walking on. The shawl is almost finished. The scarf is being worked on slowly. It has a nice repeat on it, and I use that to gauge how much I should be doing. I do two repeats a night if I can. Today,  I'll get into the physical therapy treatment we are doing on little Georgia here. She's the one in the back near the babies. She sat on her nest for 6 weeks and when she was done, hatched out two babies. But the problem was that she had a bad leg before going broody that got worse after the babies ha...

Today we will focus on the ones that are supposed to make you think you are 'special'.  I'm going to tell you a secret, you ARE special, but don't need a meme to tell you that. EVERYONE can read this. 1/3 my hinny!  And please, 'like' all you want, just don't share. I've seen it more than I've seen my own parents. To be true, I have about 450 people on my 'Friends' list on FB. About 90% of them I don't hear from at any time.  One day I was in Physics class bored out of my mind and friended anyone who had more than like 30 mutual friends.  I called it 'friendapallooza' Sometimes I get some odd thing from a person from that group. I'll make a comment to Dave and he'll say, "How do you know that person?" I'll respond, "Friendapallooza" Yeah, EVERYONE can read this as well. The mind is a wonderful thing and as you read, it deletes out all the extraneous things it does not need to make sense...

I swear that there are times when my husband spends more time in front of that mirror than I! I know he's done showering, but I don't even WANT to know what he's doing in there now... So here's my two knitting projects going on right now: The shawl is called Geese in Flight so DUH, I had to knit it. It's actually an easy pattern to memorize. I'm on my 2nd skein of yarn and it will end up being my own shawl, I think. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/geese-in-flight-shawl Then there's this Scarf: knitted from Fisherman's wool. It's a Purl Bee pattern, I think. April Showers Scarf It's supposed to be done in a lighter weight yarn, but here in the frozen tundra, the heavier yarn will be better. 

I have decided to delve into the world of Facebook Memes. Those quaint big signs with words that are good, bad or funny. Over the last week or so, I've gleaned a few of my favorite annoying memes. Those are the ones that when I see them, make me go, "Ugh...really?"  1. The new version of chain letter. DO THIS and SHARE or horrendous consequences will ensure. Really? Like God is really standing up there in the Cosmos looking down at the Facebook and says, "Well! Bob clicked like, I'll give him an extra $20 today." I roll over about 3 of these daily. I know, I know...people think it's harmless and they'll get lucky but dang people! Really?  2. The 'Cyberhug' which actually DOES NOTHING and annoys me.  Notice it also has that 'PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEEEE" addendum. No worries, that's for another meme. Really? Cyber hug? No. Just no. Not a substitute for a real one, and really pretty useless. If you really wish to t...

Ok, it's a usual day here at the farm. Chores are done, animals are fed, and knitting is commencing while I start working on a few things. I've been working on extending my family tree a bit more. Whatever I had done was left pretty much in the air about 8 years ago. We had a years' subscription to Ancestry, but couldn't afford to keep it. Now, there are a bit more free sites that will help you without having to pay up $70 to see them. The two parts of my tree that were stuck were on my Mother's side. The Laws' side was stuck in Kentucky at the start of the 1900's. Now this might be fine for some, but come on! I've gotten one part of my tree back to the 1500's.  So I started searching, using the LDS website. Back when I started, the only persons in their database were ones 'sealed' to their faith. It's a part of their religion: If you become a Mormon, all your ancestors were 'sealed in the faith' -or baptised in Mormon. Many ...