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...

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...

Is it safe?Are all the integrals gone? I'm also sporting a Deephaven Cowl that I finally finished! I will never have to take another difficult math class again! Yes, I advanced far enough to pass Calculus 2 with a dip into Differential Equations. That is, unless I bombed the final. I would not recommend that someone decide to abandon their course in University two weeks before a final. You find that your give-a-shit busts in every way. I wanted to do well in Calc, and I didn't even take the Circuits final, because..there was just no way that I was going to get anything other than an F in the class anyways. And If you are in WI, thinking of taking the UW Platteville "Collaborative" course in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, DON'T. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S HOLY...................DON'T! Mango, made for a couple who sat next to me in Calculus. They have a daughter who is young. It's a ruse: They take your money, show you a decent la...

I was relating how my Dad gave me advice some 20+ years ago.  He said, "Brenda, not everything needs to be a fight. Sometimes it's just better if you'd shut up." Interesting advice, but it has an interesting story behind it. (The picture has noting to do with the story, but I have to add them because I like pictures.  This is Tigger, my kitty) Back some 20 years ago, I was on welfare, getting Section 8 housing after that SOB of a Father to my son left us high and dry before I was even showing.  What do you do when 1/2 of the parental units bails on you? You go on welfare and work your ass out of that situation.  Well, Alex was less than 1 year old, and Section 8 will not allow you to be living in a 1 bedroom apartment with a child. You need 2 bedrooms, so I needed to move. I found an apartment on the other side of town in an 8 unit building; upstairs and to the right.  It'll do and Section 8 approved it. Only after that did I find out that the Landlord o...

I'm on that quest to cleanse my soul, so here's another chunk of miasma for you: I've learned not to like people these days. And as each day progresses on, I dislike people more.  It's gotten to the point where I just don't want  to be around others. People have become nothing more than hateful, spiteful, narcissistic asshats. Hell, Even my In-Laws' refuse to behave for two fucking days. They have to make my Christmas *just that more horrible* because some person on TV told them to hate their own kid. Their own child! Someone they've known since birth!  Their ability to be swayed into thinking the worst of their Son simply because someone on TV told them so, shows how really moronic they are. That concept in itself shows me how shallow their real intelligence is.  It's superficial, meant to dupe others into giving them respect, but not an iota of respect is shown the other way.  And they are not the only one; millions do that every day.  Pe...

Usually I don't throw down the pre-Christmas rant until closer to the actual day, but what the Hell.  According to the Mayans we'll be dead by then. In 2007, I made all my Christmas gifts.   In fact I spun and knit two of them from soft wool and gave them to my Mother and Mother-In-Law.  So lets roll on some photos, shall we? This one actually was taken before I washed it. The color changes were actually *dirt*. It came out snowy white with green glass beads on it.  I gave it to m Mother In Law. She folded it, put it away and I've never seen it again.  She said it would make a lovely table runner.  *facepalm* it's a STOLE! Onto #2: My Mother's shawl, Mystic Waters I think it was called.  Also spun from Targhee, with no beads. My Mom doesn't do that frou frou.  She opened it, Dad said, "Oh look, it's an old lady shawl!" and that was it. Mom keeps it on the back of her chair in the sewing room.  Hey, at least SHE didn't throw it out...

Lots of people will give you great and moving tributes to those who died on 9/11/2001.  Lots of tributes. And me? I remember the feeling of emptiness, helplessness and horror as we saw what unfolded that day. I start work at 8, so I was in by 7:45 doing my thing.  Dave and I carpooled and he needed to be across town by 8, so I got dropped off early.  As I slipped in the front door, my boss Jeff came out of his office directly across from my cubicle, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." he says incredulously.  I was thinking Cessna with a student pilot.. small plane got out of control thing.  Jeff walks back into his office. The next time he RUNS out of his office.  "Another plane just hit the other tower!" he says.  My first words were, "Terrorist Attack?" He nods and says, "Seems so." Now as the day unfolds, not much work is done.  We had radios dialed into whatever we could. I scan for any type of info online as the IT Gods would allo...

Nice Bar, right? This was taken at the Hubbell Power Systems (HPS) Guest House in 2000.  Back then I was working in Electrical Distribution. It's all that stuff that sits on the telephone poles.  HPS gives newbies a week-long seminar on different products used in Electrical Distribution. You get to travel to Missouri and stay at this guest house, which is actually the founder's original home.  The founder of HPS is deceased.  OK, so this is the bar.   I remember doing a LOT of drinking in this bar that had no Guiness, Yukon Jack, Southern Comfort, MGD Light, nor Jack Daniels.  I drank Miller ~shudder~ for a week straight.  Oh the hangovers! There was not much else to do after the day's selection of seminars, so I drank. The house itself was beautiful, decorated in a great Mod/Art Deco style. There was a circular breakfast nook: And a large area where we met every day to learn distribution equipment, their uses and manufacture: One hellac...

Today's pic came from our 2009 vacation.  We call it, "Great American Vacation II" and it was a trip to Great Sand Dunes Nat'l park, Mesa Verde, Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument. All in 2 weeks.  This picture is taken at Mesa Verde. After going through one of tours to a site, we stopped at a park on the mesa and ate some lunch.  This picture was taken at the edge of the mesa looking towards another site. Mesa Verde was very fun and educational.  I recommend it to families with kids around 10 years old. Younger kids won't grasp the significance of the site, and it's just hard to maneuver around with a toddler. Archaeology is one of my interests, and pre-Columbus native America does capture my attention. There is a museum at the top of the mesa that is must for anyone visiting the sites.

If I could have any KIP Bag at my disposal, which one would I pick? Well, it's a good question.  I've got about 6 of them rambling about with one project or another in them.  One of my favorites: I'm very fond of Lilies of the Valley; their smell, delicate flowers and how they proliferate around shady areas.  When I was a young girl, there was this old lady that had a house a block from us with these growing by the porch.  Each day I'd steal one of the stems and spend the remaining 5 blocks walking to school sniffing that great smell. Right now it's keeping my Bee Fields Shawl in stasis.  That shawl is 100% handspun silk in hues of gold.  I just lost interest in it during the 2nd motif.  Of course, being the one that sews the bag means mine is lined in black with pockets of green. Since there's a few more bags running around, perhaps I'll show off another one and it's component project next week. 

Alex, opening up his present this year.  What do you give a young man, destined to be outta the house in 3 months and going to a place where nothing is needed? I gave up.  He got every trial sized health sample Target had for dudes.  It includes febreeze and mouth wash and wrinkle release.  According to the recruiter, the earliest he can begin Basic Training is March.  After that, who knows? We'll save up the $$ and send it to him for what he needs. Christmas and New Years are over and I am certainly glad to be rid of both of them. My hope is for a better year this year. Perhaps something with a more optimism, lot less grief from both family and friends, and a bit more adventure. 

Let's just make this a weekly thing; random picture from my 'family' picture folder.  Don't worry, nothing in there is inappropriate for children/adults/goats. So I closed my eyes and selected this one.  It's a nice picture from my front porch taken in late spring.  There's the marigold bed in front, and the wagon wheel with the bird feeder attached to the fence in back.  The County Road going through the picture is nicknamed "Roller Coaster road" for the large hills that make it a lot of fun to drive down. The field across the road was a hay field, turned to soy this year. Somewhere in my picture files I have a photo of a fox jumping in that hay field. It was just fascinating to watch the fox hunting whatever rodent was in the field.

The year was 1996, and fresh out of Tech College I landed a cushy job as a Maintenance Mechanic at a local Potato Chip Factory. Maintenance Mechanics by the way, make some tall cash and earn it about 30% of the time. The rest of the time is just piddly work. I'm digressing here.... My beloved Packers made it to the Superbowl!! I felt that this endeavor was enough to warrant a Father-Daughter tattoo. I was ready, willing and able to pay for Dad and I to get a tattoo of the Packer Helmet + 'Superbowl Champs 1996' written underneath on our upper arms. I had made the appointment. My Dad, he chickened out. He called and said, "Bren, I don't want the tattoo. Spend your money on something worthwhile." Oh GEEZ Dad! COME ON!!! So I did what he said, and I am left tattoo-less. Fast forward to 2011. Here we are at the brink of another Packer trip to the Superbowl (BTW, if that's got some trademark infringement thing going on if I say it, I'm sorry. The Bowl...