CLEAN LIVING

Company is coming.

The man's Uncle D is coming to visit.

I've never met the man before, but I've heard stories.

Lots of stories.

He will visit us in the morning here at our home.

With all the other relatives local in tow.

Guess what I'll be doing the next few days?

I was over at Blogging Incognito

a few weeks back.

Secret agent woman decided to make a few lifestyle

changes that involve eating healthy and getting exercise.

As you know, I did that a few years back...

and lost a considerable amount of weight.

I made other changes too, which led me to be here in this home.

All good choices... something I don't always do.

=:)

I was inspired by her post.

In the last year I have been a back slider of sorts.

Busy with job hunting and starting life with the man...

I stopped walking daily.

Too many barbecues and pot lucks later...

I've regained a few pounds.

GRUMBLE!

So last night I announced to the man...

tomorrow you will take me out for a hot fudge sundae...

and on Friday, I will start my health program again.

He asked me where this comes from...

did he give me something I misread as dissatisfaction?

Nope.

The whole point of my walking and changing my eating habits was to get healthy.

Not to get skinny or please anyone but myself.

He was a happy accident along the way.

Sorry babe... its not for you.

I told him that the only thing about it that concerned him...

was that I intend to be here a very long time...

so don't plan on cashing in on my life insurance anytime soon.

He laughed and said I was prize enough.

I said yeah... booby prize.

He said... well, I happen to like boobies.

That was not what I meant...

but I laughed anyway.

Which led to another thing...

his offer to help me with ah... exercise.

I pointed out that was not walking.

He pointed out that it was a lot more fun.

There's more than one way to clean up.

I think I'm hitting them all.

Cleaning up my health.

Cleaning up my home.

And cleaning up in healthy relationship.

 

 

Okay... time to clean and LATER a hot fudge sundae...

followed by some healthy exercise.

I love clean living!

CONNECTIONS

I love it when strange connections happen...

for example:

My friend Cube's blog topic yesterday was about the killing off of Spiderman

and his replacement in an off shoot comic book universe.

 

I left my comment and went about my day.

Along comes the 5:00 local news.

Looky up there in the pic...

That's Spiderman!

A group of college students dressed a dummy up in Spidey gear

and attached him to the Alsea Bay Bridge in Waldport...

where he freaked out drivers.

Many stopped to gawk and take photos

(who would do such a thing?)

hee hee

Others called the police afraid that whoever was in the 

Spidey suit would suffer web-fail and fall to a grisly end.

Oh my!

The dummy remained secure.

However, the students have been told by police that 

Spidey must come down.

He's a traffic hazard.

Sigh.

I kind of liked him up there...

keeping us safe from Goblins and the like.

=:)

No, I did not take the pic.

That's the property of KEZI News.

The world is a fun and interesting place.

COBBLERS

Mmmm... fresh blueberry cobbler!

I baked this cobbler last evening once the house cooled down.

Its been hot here.

Understand that anything over 80 degrees is hot to me.

We put the air conditioner in the window but have yet to turn it on.

Our house tends to stay cool most of the day as long as we keep it closed.

Two ceiling fans do a great job of moving the cool air.

The man has been sick most of the week...

making a sort of cobbler of his own.

I spent most of my time tip toeing around...

letting him rest.

By Friday he felt better.

YAY!

We kept the weekend slow and lazy.

No visitors... just us.

On Saturday we briefly visited with our new daughter-in-law

when we dropped off some paper for her.

She gave me a big bag of fresh blueberries.

I eat them in yogurt or in muffins.

But I had no real idea how to make them into anything else.

I didn't want to waste them.

I tried to look up recipes on line, but alas...

it was down.

So I improvised and came up with the above cobbler.

When I tasted the berries, they were tart.

My cobbler recipe that I always use calls for sugar in the cake

portion, not the berries.

I think it gives them a fresher taste and less sugar is good for me.

But these babies required it...

that much was clear.

I tossed them with a whole cup of sugar on top of what I usually use.

It worked!

The man was happy with it and that's what mattered.

Other news wise... yes as news... cobbler is tame.

I took a typing and 10 key skills test for a job on Friday.

I haven't gotten a thanks but no thanks email yet.

The job would be working in a medical lab

handling people's "specimens".

The paper work on them, that is.

I don't want to touch them.

Eeew.

No sense in wasting time waiting for response.

I'm amazed by how many employers don't bother with any response to interviews or skill tests in any fashion.

Those who do, send mass emails to the losers.

Its a strange new world.

Back to the application grind.

I guess I better freeze blueberries too...

cause I still have a big bag full.

Hope you have a good week.

SSS DOUBLESHOT

Welcome to Saturday Scavenger Shots!

This week's word is LOGICAL.

I believe it requires LOGICAL thinking to create furniture that looks nice.

The LOGICAL thing to do when one is in a restaurant with small bored

children is to provide their brains with a 

LOGICAL activity.

This adult beverage was a highly LOGICAL choice while

in another restaurant experiencing a bored small child...

with no LOGICAL game to keep him occupied...

for grandma who was not driving.

=;)

And now... because I totally spaced last week's game...

Honestly, it wasn't my fault really.

I simply forgot that it was Saturday until about Monday.

While not working...

the days seem all the same to me.

So... here is last week's word 

BEAR

chosen by one of my favorite BEARs... laura b.

Who is if you read her profile...

a dancing BEAR!

Sadly, I have no photo of laura b.

(insert your imaginary pic of laura b here)

Of course I cannot have a BEAR post without

MY

BEAR

Kind of makes you wonder if she  also had one of those 

LOGICAL adult beverages huh?

Naw... different day, just a fun shot of a feisty BEAR.

Where ever you are today...

whatever you are doing...

be thankful

for the Ws...

Who you are with

Where you are

and What is good in your moment.

Dog Attack Shark

I got him for ya ma!  =:)

Shark Week is coming!  According to a commercial I saw on the tube yesterday... it begins on Sunday.  

I have never had a shark encounter.  My friend Cube was bitten by one. =:/

The idea of that freaks me out!

I did pet one at the Oregon Aquarium... it was small enough to still be cute

and I'm guessing that since he was in the aquarium version of a petting zoo...

a shark of a type that does not bite at all.  

I like to touch the urchins.  They're just sticky.  Touch them and they close right up.  Its the same kind of joy you get as a kid when someone shows you their ouchie and you poke it.  "Hey!"

I thought it was interesting how many dogs bite sharks on film!  Youtube has a bunch of them.  Sharing is caring as they say!

http://youtu.be/b5Mj2EJIEsY

Ha!

Lesson learned... if I want to swim in the ocean... I'll take Roxy with me.

I knew there was a reason that I got a dog. 

CHOOSE AND DEFEND

(The white portion of this woman's torso is untanned skin, not a blouse)

I don't normally report on local news issues...

why would my readers want to know what is happening far from them?

But this news story piqued my interest.

You can see a video of the story here:

Junction City Woman Thrown Out of Walmart for What She Was Wearing

KEZI | News, Weather and Sports in Eugene, Oregon
URL: http://kezi.com/

In short... this woman went into WalMart wearing an outfit she actually purchased at this very store... and was asked to leave because of the outfit she was wearing.

She is considered "elderly"

and is decidedly odd looking with her shaved head and multiple tattoos.

The outfit in question was a bathing suit top and a pair of fairly short shorts,

a removable cast on her leg and shoes.

She is obviously overweight, but not frighteningly so.

It was a very hot day here.

A manager came to her in the store and took her aside...

saying that a customer had made a complaint

in regards to her attire.

The manager then told her that she must leave and put on a different top

if she wanted to shop there.

The woman was insulted and has asked for a formal apology.

When local news reported this story,

they were told by a WalMart rep that it is store policy

and wearing a top is a matter of health concern since they sell food items.

KEZI decided to test this policy out.

A slim younger woman in her twenties and was sent into the store

wearing cut off jeans the same length and a bikini top.

She visited all areas of the store...

including the grocery sections...

and lo and behold...

she was not stopped and cautioned about her clothing,

the policy  or health concerns...

only smiles.

You would not catch me wearing this outfit in public...

and probably not even in my own yard.

(I feel like I need to apologize to the neighbors

when I wear my baggy long shorts and a wife beater

when I mow the lawn!)

Therefore when I saw this on the news...

I immediately put it into my mental 

"what was she thinking?" file.

Yet on a rational level...

I think WalMart owes her that formal apology.

They were happy to sell her that outfit and take her money.

They do not enforce their "health policy"

for younger, thinner and more socially acceptable

customers.

So let's make this a "Choose and Defend Wednesday" Question...

What say you in this issue?

Was WalMart wrong in demanding that she leave?

Or did they have a right to decide who can dress in what manor inside their store?

MOWING DOWN THE STREAM

When I was a kid almost everyone had a snazzy mower like this

to keep their yards under control.

It was a great system, really.

Few moving parts and you could stop quickly.

Add in the benefits of some solid aerobic exercise...

and it was quite the machine.

Of course, I hated ours.

It was actually Big Boo's job to mow the lawn.

But Big Boo was a jock and played every sport humanly possible

at that point in ancient history.

Guess who got to mow the lawn when he had practice?

We lived in a nice upper middle class neighborhood.

The race to best the Jones was always on.

The McPearsons were the clear winners

with their first ever color TV

and matching Cadillacs.

We weren't sure what Pricilla's daddy did for a living.

But unlike our daddies

he wore his church clothes to work every day...

suit, tie and hat!

Naturally it was big news when any

delivery truck showed up at the McPearson's house.

One lovely Saturday morning

the Sears van dropped off a big brown crate.

I could see it from my bedroom window...

and had to go investigate!

By the time my sneakers hit their lawn,

it was out of the box.

The biggest, fanciest green and yellow lawn mower

I had ever seen in person.

Mr. McP stood behind the bar grinning

and pointed out the features to his oldest son.

Two things stuck me as funny...

Mr. McP was wearing casual clothes

and

Mr. McP had his hands on the bar as if he intended to use 

the wonder machine himself!

Everyone knew that they had a "man" who did all their yard work....

and no one knew he had casual clothes!

Had the McPs fallen on hard times?

We gathered... the neighborhood kids...

around it at a safe distance.

Mr. McP carefully filled the gas tank with a funnel

and screwed the cap on tight.

After a couple of pulls on the rope...

it roared loudly to life and he warned us all to stay back.

I've never seen a man mow a yard so proudly!

Or a herd of children following behind one.

It was noisy and it stunk.

We loved it!

I suppose it was the thrill of the moment

and a big sense of pride that caused

Pricilla to become so frisky.

Mr. McP hollered at us to go home.

Mrs. McP let me stay.

Was I lucky or what?

She warned us to stay away from Pricilla's father

and went back to her quiet house.

We decided to pretend to be horses.

The things little girls do for fun!

I had a pixie but tossed my head anyway

to get the proper horsey expression.

Pricilla was way better with her long curls

and even longer legs.

Neither of us bothered to notice

that she had crossed onto the long grass.

We were wild stallions from Arabia running like the wind.

The clash was horrific,

when the wild Arabian met John Deere...

Pricilla and Mr McP met as they rounded the same bush.

I first ran for Mrs. McP

and then home.

News spreads fast in the old neighborhood.

By the time she got to school on Monday

everyone knew that the McPs' fancy new lawn mower

hadn't cost an arm and a leg...

just three toes.

=:)

My lawn mower died yesterday.

Its a gas powered Craftsman that would never impress anyone.

I prefer electric like I used to have,

but this one was here and mine is up there.

My yard has a big square O in the tall grass.

Today the man will be using part of his day to fix it.

I won't be getting a new toe-eater.
But I did think about getting one like this

It looked fun!