You wouldn't know this about me, but I sort of really get energetic about 11 or 12 at night. That's pretty much the only time I really enjoy cleaning house, actually. Daytime, well, daytime's for sleeping in, getting up at the crack of noon for a lavish lunch out, and then back home in time for a proper nap while there's still good daylight to avoid.

My place has a concrete floor, and starting about 11:15 on Saturday night, I hand scrubbed half the downstairs floor. Yeah, by hand, with a rag.

OOH, and- SHOPPING REPORT! -- Mrs. Meyers' Clean Day cleaners now come in Basil flavor!!! No, it doesn't smell like pesto, but it does smell super-clean without smelling like a bunch of chemicals or artificial fruit or flower scents. I really like the Geranium and Lemon/Verbena scents, but I saw the Basil at Elliot's Hardware at Motor and Maple Friday and had to give it a whirl.

Mrs. Meyers Countertop Spray is good stuff, too. I'll have to check into their pet-oriented products. When someone comes up with something I can feed these varmints to make them pee lavender, well, I'd do it. In the meantime, I'll keep cleaning with Mrs. Meyers, but only very late at night.

**************

Had the wee darlings over Saturday while sis was working and we fiddled with the filters on the logitech camera. We laughed and laughed. Fun!

I'm a lucky auntie.

Now I'm off to scrub the rest of the floor. Cheers, m'dears!

Maiden 'Voggage

When you're a person who loves 'Vogs, you'll wear each pair hundreds of times, but there's only one day when you wear that pair for the first time. It's cold and I was digging through me sock drawer and found some patterned stockings I've never worn before and one thing led to another et voila! Here I am in my goth-bootie Dame Agnes for the first time.

Got these way back in January, but the time has never been right to wear them. Today's the day!

ROWR!

Remember that big to-do last year - Earth-Aid or whatever it was - a string of synchronized concerts around the planet to raise money for Al Gore's. - oh, whatever the hell that was--???

I just remember there was one bit where Madonna harangued the audience by modestly saying "this is the last chance we have to save the planet."

Well, guess what?

Madonna's strict macrobionic diet includes blueberries flown to her from Canada. Uh, how is that environmentally sensitive, air-lifting your gorram blueberries?

Kicking and screaming, I finally let peer pressure (thanks, Breda) shame me into getting a webcam.

Wanna see my wiener?



Here he is in all his splendor. Yup, he's got more of the dachshund than chihuahua. He's 8.5 pounds of magnficent brute.

Lessons I learned Thursday:

• You know how you get those sprinkle-on-carpet-then-vacuum air fresheners? Well, the spread-the-aroma effect works with other products, as well, including the dog poo someone hoovered up a couple weeks ago. Don't do it.
• The $9.99 mallard squeak toy will last less than 30 minutes, whereas an Aquafina water bottle will last for days and days. [NOTE: Greybeard sagely informed me that plastic can be deadly for our little pooches. Sorry to give bad information - I've monitored my dogs when they've played with plastic things, but based on what he told me (see the comments section), it's probably best not to let them play with plastic things at all. Better to deny them goodies than to give them something that may wound or kill them. Thanks, Greybeard!]
• If a terrier is being quiet, they are definitely up to something. Go ahead and get mad before you find them.

Sometimes, a gal's just gotta take charge.
Hedy Lamarr and Spencer Tracy in Tortilla Flat

From IMDB:

Hedy's credited invention was for a radio guiding system for torpedoes which was used in WWII. She supposedly gained the knowledge from her first husband, Fritz Mandl, a Viennese munitions dealer who sided with the Nazis. Hedy drugged her maid to escape her husband and homeland.

*************

I generally have a goal of kicking more of the week's ass than it kicks of mine. At this point, I'm thinking I'm only still ahead of the game because I took Tuesday off.

What better way to celebrate National Ammo Day than to add to your stash?

While you're adding to your hoarde, how's about giving the old stuff a little hug while you're in there? :)

From GunNuts radio chat companion:

phlegmfatale:Hey sexy peoples - I'm taking off. Great show, breda and ahab!
SebastianSH:What about Skype?
Jay_G:that is quite possibly the most annoying music in the history of bumper music
Jay_G:Night phlegm!
0G:Wtf is up with not being able to backspace?
SebastianSH:sexy peoples? Speak for youself
phlegmfatale:uh, i was!
SnarkyBytes:Breda: Skype fail
TJP:bye phlegmmy
phlegmfatale:bye!
Breda:bye!
0G:I can barely type as is, without backspacing!
phlegmfatale:OH, and the drunk show?
Ahab:bye phlegmmy
phlegmfatale:two weeks ago?
Breda:the drunk show ROCKED
phlegmfatale:I think gunnuts chat is pregnant.
Jay_G:I was there.
Jay_G:I think
TJP:LOL
SebastianSH:The drunk show?
Jay_G:But I'm not the father
SebastianSH:Was this during the election and I missed it?
Jay_G:The kid is not my son
Breda:yup
Rich in Ohio:Election night.
phlegmfatale:many fathers, many mothers, no good parents

I have to say I'm an amazing cook. I've made a couple little recipes up all by my ownsome, and I'm very good at following other recipes and I greatly enjoy whipping up a feast. I'm a naturally good navigator, and (when not distracted by the most extraordinary things) probably a much-better-than-average driver. I can decorate quite well with what other people leave at the curb. I can sew, crochet, knit and probably stitch up a nasty gash. I'm a very good gardener. No one can spoil a dog the way I can. I'm a fair shot and handily qualified for my CHL last week. I like to be nice, but have been known to crack a whip when one needed cracking. Even at 5'2", a person or two has called me intimidating.

But only yesterday did I truly become a dangerous woman, possessor of the key to the undoing of the known universe: late Tuesday, the Brown Truck of Happiness™ delivered to me Nanny Ogg's Cookbook.

This was a surprise belated birthday gift from darling dear enabler Christina in Las Vegas. Thanks Christina, you clever girl!

I can't wait to get started, and now no one is safe. You have been warned.

I'll keep a freezer-full of ice on hand, btw, not that it will be enough.

Day off Tuesday.
WHEEEEE!

So I found this latex pirate rubber chicken squeak toy and HAD to have it for the hounds. She-beast was mad for it and and didn't want to share with wee Chuy. Stingy.

I know. I know. Try not to be jealous of my $10 green velvet 1970s thunder-pimp chair, okay? I really like it, is all. I can quit buying furniture at thrift stores any time I want to. I'm not addicted. Really.

omg- i SQUEALED when I got my results. Just when in my 18th consecutive year of being owned by Jack Russell Terriers, I was wondering if I'd been mistaken:

Jack Russell Terrier
The Artist
You, my friend, are an artiste! Fuelled by a hounding sense of creativity and an untameable desire to express yourself, you see the world through rose-colored glasses one day and then wrestle the curtains closed and turn off the lights so you can ponder life the next. Your dog-eared journal is filled with brilliant ideas about rescuing the universe, yet you have trouble training your noggin on any one of them for any significant amount of time. Your originality occasionally manifests itself as performance art, and you love showing off your amazing athletic abilities in front of an audience. When it comes to taking on the leader of the pack, you’re not afraid to sink your teeth in - and won't loosen your grip until you've gotten your point across.

Clearly, they've met me. Except for the athletic thingie. I expect all the bouncing and giggling gave me away.

Separated at Birth?



In what has to be one of the most unintentionally funny photo enhancements of recent years -- quite an achievement-- the UK's Mirror did a story on the whereabouts of B.O.'s fifth-grade classmates. What cracks me up here is they felt the need to point out which one was Our Dear Leader by circling and significantly enlarging his cranium, to Mars Attacks! effect. His head was plenty big enough already.



What do you think?

SHOPPING FOR OTHERS



Holly's pretty adventurous and already has joined the cult of Fluevog. I'm proud of her for stepping up her shoe game. I'd like to think I've wielded some teeny bit of bad influence, in that regard.



In that spirit, here's an uncharacteristically sensible choice in shoes for Our Hols: the Sofft Carma Mary Jane pump has 2 3/4" heel, but this line of shoes features some of the most comfortable, all-day-wearable heels I've ever had. Plus the entire upper and shoe lining (or sock) is made of leather, which is coming to be increasingly rare in shoes under $100, I find. I like this shoe and will prolly get a pair for myself, but I thought of these for Hols because they come in purple.



Hope ya like 'em, honey!