It's Alive!

This past week felt so strange to me without my laptop. I did fire up the desktop one day so I could check my email, make sure all was well with our ING and Smarty Pig accounts, and scan the news headlines. I moved some of our furniture around so that the desktop computer is now back in the "master bedroom" which we are using as the study/computer/kitty room. The cats were kinda annoyed with me being back there, as they had gotten used to having that room pretty much to themselves during the day. They are both grouchy old ladies who prefer a warm and quiet room for their numerous naps.


I'm still working on unpacking boxes. It's going slower than I had hoped as I keep finding boxes that I can't do anything with at this point, and if haul too many boxes around in one day, my back starts giving me fits which affects what I can do the next day. *grumble grumble* The closet in the "master bedroom" is a work in progress. It will eventually be my main kitchen pantry, various storage, and where I put the clothes that won't fit in the small closet in our bedroom. I've got two of my food storage racks arranged in there the way I want, but I'm having trouble getting a third one put back together. I need to remember NOT to take that third one apart before the next move as it's a real bear to get back together!


 The dress code at Mr. Hairball's new job only lets employees wear jeans once a week, so I also spent some time hemming and taking up some of his dress pants that were too long and too big in the waist for him.


As for bad news, it seems that the portion of Mr. Hairball's paycheck discrepancy related to getting credit for all of his education and work experience will take longer to resolve than we had hoped. In the good news column, I think I'll be able to finish this month about 10% under budget for groceries, so that's more money we can put towards the "New Laptop For Mr. Hairball Fund". I've been putting my grocery store receipts up on the refrigerator as a reminder of what I can do when I put my mind to it. *grins*


We don't have cable at our new place, and the local channels I can currently receive seem to be paid up primarily of Judge XYZ, talk shows, televangelists, infomercials, and programming directed at small children. Needless to say, when I found my box of DVDs I was really excited to have some more viewing options! I spent the last week in a nice retro bubble as none of the DVDs I watched/listened to during the day contained movies or TV programs made after 1980.


I was thinking maybe I should start doing theme weeks where at least one movie/program a day fits into a theme.  I own this set, so the theme for next week will be Joan Crawford movies. I'll watch them in chronological order so I'll start on Monday with The Women.

Hope all of you have a good week!

Old Ghosts And Hometown Rivalries

In my brief post about Mr. Hairball getting a new job and us packing up for another move, I left out some rather interesting details:

• Mr. Hairball's new job just happens to be located in my hometown.

• My hometown is one of those places where high school football is an overwhelming obsession a really big deal , and there is an intense rivalry between the two public high schools in town. 

• Mr. Hairball stumbled into a job working for the local school district, and will be working for the high school I did not attend when I lived here. 

I never thought in a million years I'd be living back in Hometown City, and dealing with the  whole high school rivalry and the football obsession thing again. It was insane back then, and from the stories Mr. Hairball is telling me about what goes on at work, nothing has changed. To make things simple, we'll call the school he works at Crosstown High School, as it is the "new" school that was built when Hometown City grew large enough to need another high school. Papa Hairball attended Hometown City High, as did Brother Hairball and myself. It feels quite strange to now live in Crosstown High's district.

Mr. Hairball is constantly hearing talk of how Crosstown High School is so much better than Hometown City High in regards to X,Y, and Z, and any instance where Hometown City High School actually is doing better, is regarded as a case of bad data or some other excuse.  I guess heads would explode if someone broke down and admitted that Crosstown High is usually better at X and Hometown City High is usually better at Y. *shrugs*

I drove out to see the old homestead a couple of weeks ago. The new owners have made some changes and the old house looked nice. I hadn't done that in many years as I was afraid it would be painful to see new people living in "my house". Mama Hairball told me that they were a nice family and she felt they would take good care of the house. It looks like she was right. I had forgotten just how far out of town we used to live. It's about a half hour drive from our new apartment near Crosstown High out to the old place. Pretty much another world as far as I'm concerned. I passed a gentleman driving a pickup truck on the way down my old street, and he waved at me as I passed him. Can't remember the last time a stranger waved at me like that!

Mama Hairball asked me how the town had changed as she had moved away before the last oil boom happened, and I told her that the "affluent" side was now an unending sea of big box stores, strip malls, and chain restaurants.

I guess never being more than a block away from a chain restaurant is considered progress to some people.


Still unpacking, I'll post more later on.

Now where did I put the packing tape???

Dear Readers,

 Mr. Hairball has found a job!! The movers will be here on Tuesday so we are packing like crazy to meet the deadline. We are both achy and exhausted from packing and stacking boxes, but are extremely grateful that he has a job.  I'm going to need to take some time to get settled in the new place, but after we get settled in,  I'd like to start blogging again on a more regular basis.

Best to all,

Hairball T. Hairball

PS: We've never had "real" movers before, so I feel a little like Wheezy Jefferson when she and George moved into their "deluxe apartment in the sky".




PSS: Comments will continue to be moderated to keep out the spammers, so please don't fret if your comment takes a while to be approved. As long as your comment is not spam or obscene, it should make the cut.

Brief Update

I didn't intend to be gone this long, but whenever I've tried to write a blog post, it quickly turned into a ginormous whinefest. That's not good, because I'm trying very hard to spend too much time with the 'bad elves'. I'm sure you've met Whiny, Bitchy, Extra-Snarky, Revenge, Envy, and Not Fair, Dammit! before?

They can make a huge mess of your home and drink all of your adult beverages before passing out on your couch. Fortunately, meeting them at the door with a shotgun seems to have the same effect as it does on pesky salesfolk and people who have a hard time understanding that you are really not interested in attending services at their particular place of worship. *evil grin*

Mr. Hairball's job situation is still unresolved, but there are still some possibilities on the horizon. We'll likely have to move again, but that comes with the turf. I promised Mr. Hairball before we married that I would go wherever his job took us. I intend to keep my promise.

Our personal lives have been challenging as we've dealt with financial issues, loved ones in the hospital, a death, and the sad news that after several years of marriage counseling, one of our relatives has decided that a divorce is his only option.

Luckily for Mr. Hairball and I, the hard times have always brought us closer together to face whatever challenges are thrown our way. This time is no different. One day, we'll laugh about this time, just like we do about a Christmas during "The Grad School Years", when we were so poor that we only had five dollars to spend on gifts. Our local grocery store had just had a sale on their frozen foods and had put their frozen pizzas on sale for $.50 each! We had a big stack of them in the freezer and if you sprinkled a little more cheese on top they weren't too bad.*grins* We didn't own a pizza cutter though, so both of us came up with the idea to buy the other one a pizza cutter from the dollar store for Christmas. 'Pizza Cutter Christmas' will always be one of my favorite memories because we laughed so hard at the pizza cutters and really enjoyed our time together away from work (me) and school (him).

We've never lived in the lap of luxury, but we've always had food and a roof over our head. That makes us quite fortunate compared to a lot of people in this world.

This too shall pass.

 Sincerely,

Hairball T. Hairball


PS: Please notice that the comments are now moderated on my blog. I had to do this because in my absence, some people had decided that my blog was an appropriate place to advertise adult websites. Not cool.

Curveball At 12 O'clock

Some of you have probably noticed that I haven't been blogging or visiting your blogs very much lately. At first, I was kinda in a funk and was just keeping myself busy doing other things, then Mr. Hairball came home last month with some bad news. His employer has decided not to renew his contract at work, which means that he will be out of job in a few months.

Even in a good economy, his field is highly competitive and there are always more people than jobs to go around. Needless to say, we were not happy at this turn of events. He's already found some positions he can apply for and is spending his evenings looking for another job.

I've already informed some of my relatives which really is a trying experience to say the least. While I've explained this to my relatives numerous times, they still don't understand that the rules for finding a job in career field A can be very different than the rules for finding a job in career field B. I'm all for thinking outside of the box, but if the employers in your field are box people, you gotta learn to play their game unless you are in the enviable position of being a hot commodity. If one of my relatives tells me one more time that Mr. Hairball just needs to do XYZ, which is something that is just not done in his field, I think I'm going to scream.

Here's the deal, I don't want this to become the main topic of my blog because you all have your own problems to worry about. Also, the way things work in Mr. Hairball's field is that you hurry to get all your stuff in and then you ever so impatiently wait for news. We likely won't know anything till January (yes, January!) at the earliest. If I get five or more comments saying that you want to know what happens, I'll do a post when I know something. If less than five of you are interested, then you can always email me (check my profile) and I will email you back when I know something. Deal?

Okay, now lets make some cookies as butter, pecans, and chocolate chips are the cure for everything that ails you!! Whoot!

I'm back!!

I actually got back last week, but I needed some time to rest and get caught up with everything at home.


A few things I learned on this trip:


1) If I had to sleep for the rest of my life in a double bed with Mr. Hairball, I'd either end up divorced or in prison.



2) Luck Be a Lady sounds really good while driving off into the sunset.





3) Cattle are fascinated by auto trunk interiors.



4) You can leave a watermelon in your trunk for four days and it will be okay.


5) If you decide to stop and read all the "hysterical"markers on your route, bring a flashlight for the days you get a late start.


6) The weather in August is amazing at 8,000 feet.

Flashback Friday!

A few of the films from the 1940's that I enjoy watching.













Another one I enjoy is Since You Went Away, which I can't find a trailer for right now. I'll warn you that it is a real tearjerker!

On a personal note, this is going to be my last post for a while. I really do appreciate all of you who read and comment on my blog.

Food posts, weather, etc...

I just looked over my recent posts and realized that I have not done any food posts this week. I haven't really cooked all that much lately. I've kinda been in a funk. Maybe it's the heat. The local weatherdude is predicting that Friday's high will be 102F/39C. I am going to try and get my grocery shopping and errands done before noon tomorrow to escape the worst of it.

I did make a pork roast earlier in the week, but I think the recipe needs more work before I do a post about it. Mr. Hairball for the third week in a row, asked me to make him some brownies. I think he's in a rut or something! Anyway, I used some of that Hershey's special dark cocoa that Kelly of Evil Shenanigans recommends, and I was very pleased with the results. I also made some baked mac and cheese, but I've already blogged about that too. Perhaps next week will be better in terms of food posts!

Flashback Friday is already set up in the queue for a trip back to the 70's.

See you then!

Sorry, dear readers!

Just wanted to apologize to my readers for not having a lot of content for you this week. I realize that I am the center of your universes and that each morning you leap from your snug little beds quivering with anticipation as to my newest recipe, rant, or video clip. LOL

Between a sewing project that involved doing some minor work on my sewing machine, and helping out some of my shrike buddies, the blogging (and reading of blogs) has been pushed to the back burner. Luckily, I did have some posts already in the queue like Flashback Friday so at least there was that!

Things should calm down next week so that I can finally get those pictures up of my lemon pie, and my bam-tastic version of Emeril's pot roast. Whoot!

Tell your friends and loved ones how you feel about them, dance in your kitchens, and yell Whoot! at least twice a day.

Your friend,
Hairball T. Hairball

More to come...

I've been working on some other projects lately but, I do have some pictures from a couple of recent recipes that I will do some posts about soon. Didn't want anybody to think that I stopped cooking or anything!

Checking in again

I'm way behind on blogging this week. I have some pictures that I need to edit and work into some posts. My camera battery is slowly dying so I have to recharge it frequently which slows things down a bit. I'm also having one of those weeks where I'm not sleeping well so here I am on the computer late at night again.

Hope all of you are well and will have humorous April Fool's Day posts lined up for my enjoyment!

Checking in

I didn't want anybody to think I was dead or some evil rogues had kidnapped me or anything. Just been busy doing some crafts, cooking, baking, and playing catch-up on housework from the weekend.

The weather is more humid than usual this week and there's even a decent chance of some of the "R" word falling on the fair city of Hairballville! Whoot! Keep your fingers crossed for us, as we've only had about an inch of precipitation since November.

I hope all of you are doing well in your little corner of the world!

Hairball

PS: My current Feedjit location reflects what I hope happens this week in my town weather wise!