7/31/11

Well, I survived another month of NaBloPoMo. I always say I'm not going to do it again, but then I see the topic for the next month, and I start to waiver. (BTW, next month's theme is fiction)

Keeping it short again, cuz I'm REALLY feeling bad today. I haven't had cramps like this in a while. Sorry, I know, TMI.

Saturday, July 30

Not feeling so hot today. MAJOR cramps (sorry, boys) and there's a migraine knocking on my door. I've been lying here watching Harry Potter with CSJ for a few hours now. It's kinda nice.

IT'S ALIVE!!!

Tom just called me from outside, and asked me to turn on the air. Guess what! There's cold air coming out of my vent!!

Friday, July 29, 2011

What was the last thing you bought?

Subway last night for dinner. I've been craving it for weeks. I don't know why. Man, did I enjoy dinner!!

I know you're dying to know what's going on with my air-conditioner. Well, it's still broken. I finally talked to Tom, my a/c guy, last night, and he said he'd be out this morning. Well, it's almost 11, and I have yet to hear from him. I'm trying to not be pissy about it.

HOLY CRAP! As I was typing that last sentence, my phone started ringing, and it was Tom. Thank the Lord! He'll be here in about an hour. Woo hoo! Now, let's just hope it doesn't start raining until after he finishes fixing things. The sky is looking gray and angry right now.

It stormed again last night. Stud and I spent the night at CSJ's last night, and as I listened to the storm raging outside, all I could think about was the fact that every window in my house was open. I was trying to figure out which room was going to be flooded when I got home this morning. According to this blurb in today's Sun-times, this has been the 7th wettest month in our history!

I got up earlier than I wanted to head back here because, unfortunately, my phone would NOT get a signal at CSJ's. It was pissing me off big time. I told Tom to call my cell when he was on his way because I wasn't going to be able to sleep in my house, as it was unbearable. But, since I couldn't get any calls at CSJ's, I had to come back home to my sauna. (Stud is still sleeping there as I type.)

As soon as I walked in the door, I realized that, at some point, we lost power AGAIN last night. Luckily, according to my neighbor, it wasn't out very long. The best part - NO water in the basement!

I think I'll go see if I have something around here that I can whip up for lunch. Maybe Tom will work faster if he knows lunch is waiting for him. ;-)

Oh, that's just fan-fuckin'-tastic!!

Paul Conrad, my morning news guy, just said that we should have a high of 90 today, but there's so much humidity that the heat index reading will be closer to 110. Oh, and we have a flash flood warning going on, as well!!!! So, do I chance the pounding rain getting in the windows, or do I close them and suffocate? Hmmm...decisions, decisions....

Speaking of my favorite morning show, they just played this right after the weather report. I realize it's probably not nearly as funny to those people who don't watch this morning show, but I think it'll still make you laugh.
As Seen On TV: Robin's favorite songs CD

July 27

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

What is the first thing you do in the morning?

Pee. Doesn't everyone?!

Then, I immediately wash my face and brush my teeth. After that, I usually go down to the basement and make myself a super delicious cup of coffee with my Keurig machine. I bring my coffee back up to my room, make my bed, then immediately plop myself down on it, and turn on my laptop. After I check my email, I check in on all of you guys.

Oh, and then, if I have to, I start getting ready for work. But, I'm in summer mode right now, which means I get to watch my favorite morning news show all the way to the end (woo hoo!) which then goes right into Regis & Kelly. I usually watch that in the kitchen while I empty the dishwasher, feed and water the dog, water my plants, vacuum up dog hair, you know, the usual.

Wow, I think I went WAY beyond what was asked here. Sorry.

A little update on the tragic air-conditioner situation - IT'S STILL FUCKING BROKEN!!!

I spoke to my dad's friend (who installed the unit) on Monday, and explained the situation. He had me go outside, in the blazing heat, to read the model number and serial number to him, so he could get the parts. He said he would call me the next day. Ok, great. He also told me to turn the unit off because it could ruin the compressor. Well, sorry, THAT'S not gonna happen! I figured, what the hell, the thing already needs to be replaced. I'm just gonna wait til it goes off again, THEN I'll leave it off. Thank the sweet Lord, it stayed on, at least until I went to bed. But, sure enough, it was off in the morning.

Well, yesterday came and went, no phone call. It actually wasn't that bad, though, because we've had some really beautiful weather the past couple of days. The temperature was around 75, with cool breezes from late Monday afternoon until this morning. It actually got so cold last night, that it woke me up (I had all my bedroom windows open) and I had to get under the covers. But, I knew the heat was coming, since they kept talking about it every time there was a weather report. I figured I'd have to call my dad's friend again today.

As luck would have it, he called me around 9:10 this morning. He said he was getting ready to leave, and asked if it was raining. I told him it was overcast, but not raining yet. As I waited for him, it was getting darker and darker outside. Around 10:15, I started hearing thunder in the distance. Great. I was trying to figure out how I could pitch a tent over my air-conditioning unit, cuz come hell or high water, it was getting fixed!!

Tom finally showed up at almost 11:30. He went outside, checked out the unit, then came in and checked out the inside stuff. He said, yes, it was definitely the compressor. He said it had a really bad short, and doesn't know how I was getting it to stay on at all. He said that every time I flipped the switch, it should have immediately tripped the circuit breaker. Well, whatever. I don't know why that happened, who cares! Now I'm just waiting to find out how long it was going to take him to fix it.

Get ready, here comes the best part.

He tells me, "Ok, well I'm gonna head back to the shop and see if I can track down this part for ya." WTF?!?!?! I thought the reason you had me go outside on MONDAY was so that you'd have the damn part when you got here!! ARGH!

I couldn't really say much since he was doing me the favor by coming out and fixing it, but still, I was NOT happy. Naturally, the temperature continued to rise all day today. Right now, I'm sitting here feeling sticky and icky. Thankfully, I'm about to leave for my girlfriend's salon to get my hair done. We're ALWAYS freezing when we're there cuz she keeps the salon like an icebox. I can hardly wait.

Send out some positive vibes that this repair will be completed tomorrow. Please. I'm begging you.

Email of the Day

Sometimes my Daddy sends me some stupid stuff. Sometimes, he send GOLD!!!

Day 25

Monday, July 25, 2011

What was the last trip you took?

To Saugatuck, Michigan this past March.

(I'm too hot to elaborate on this one, but I didn't want to miss my NaBloPoMo post.)

Pssst....are you up?

I woke up about about 2:30 with that uncomfortable "sweaty" feeling. Crap, not again!

I had heard the air click off last night around 9ish, so I looked at the thermostat real quick and saw that the temp in the house matched the temp it was set at, so I figured that's why it clicked off. In the back of my mind, I was praying that's what it was, anyway. But, I was up for a while after that, and at one point, I had to get under my covers because it was nice and chilly in my room.

Well, like I said, then I woke up around 2:30 feeling hot. Sure enough, the air wasn't on. I went down to the basement and saw that the circuit breaker was tripped again. I flipped it, and it almost immediately tripped again. Ok, take a deep breath.... Flip it again, wait a second and *click*- off again. Ok, try not to scream a slew of swear words (mostly cuz Stud was Skyping with a friend about 2 feet away from me. The fact that he was up in the middle of the night Skyping brought on the urge for it's own slew of swear words, but I digress)

I waited a few more minutes, trying to hang on to my "third time's a charm" philosophy. I flipped the breaker switch one more time. Wait, wait, wait....nothing! Woo hoo! It's been about an hour and a half, and the cold air is still pumping. Maybe I should change the thermostat setting from "auto" to "on" for the fan? Will that keep it from switching off when the set temperature is reached? I have no idea.

I do know that it's now about 4:15 (AM!!) and I'm wide awake. That's NOT good. I need to figure out how to get back to sleep, or I'm going to be worthless tomorrow.

The (boring!) air-conditioner saga

My (ex)brother-in-law was here for about 2 hours yesterday, sweating his ASS off in the sweltering heat, trying to fix my air-conditioner. I'll spare you all the boring details, but he realized that, for some reason, the unit keeps tripping the circuit breaker. The first 2 times he got it to run, it tripped the breaker in about 30 seconds. He then took the whole unit apart and cleaned the hell out of it (it was nasty!! No one ever told me I was supposed to clean it!) then got it running again. It stayed on! Woo hoo!

He called a buddy of his who's a heating/air-conditioning guy, and they determined that the fact that the power went out 3 times in the last week and a half somehow affected the compressor. Thankfully, the compressor has a 10 year warranty.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to do anything else about it, since it was running when he left. However, once again I woke up feeling sweaty, and realized that the air was blowing warm again. Damn it!!! I flipped the circuit breaker, the air kicked on, but then went out about a minute later. Shit, shit, shit!!! The last thing my brother-in-law said as he was pulling out of my driveway yesterday was, "Hey, don't keep flipping that breaker, you'll short it out and burn your house down!" (Yes, he sometimes likes to be dramatic) So, I debated whether or not I should try it again. I figured one more time couldn't hurt. I flipped it on, and before I walked across the room, I heard it click off. FUCK!!

I sat there for about 5 minutes trying to decide if I should bother trying it one more time. I finally determined that the third time's a charm, and flipped it one last time. Success!!! That was at about 11am, and now it's after 8:30pm, and thank the Lord, it's still on. I'm still going to call the nearest Lennox dealer tomorrow to see how much a service call costs for someone to come out and check the compressor. I definitely can NOT live without air-conditioning!! Especially since our heatwave shows no signs of going away anytime soon. Poop.

Cranky Update

Well, I woke up in a pool of my own sweat this morning (sorry for the repulsive imagery) and knew that the air-conditioner was not working. I could feel warm air barely blowing out of the vents. I headed down to the basement to, I don't know, look at the blower. I flipped on the light in the laundry room and was greeted by a small pond on the floor. The big storm must have hit overnight. I slept through the whole thing.

So, now I get to clean up the floor, and then clear out at much crap from the laundry room as I can so that a repairman can get in there. That's no easy task, believe me. The upside of of changing the basement plans to include this laundry/utility room is that I now have a room to hide/store stuff. The downside is that I now have a room to hide/store stuff. It's just full of crap right now, and I'm going to have to deal with it, whether I want to or not. Poop.

I just heard a teaser for the morning news that mentioned the big storms we had overnight, and all the flooding they caused. Great. I'll watch the news while I swab the deck.

Oh, c'mon already!!

I've been feeling hot and cranky all day today. It started this morning when the power went out, leaving me without air-conditioning for a while. Like I said earlier, I opened the windows in my room just a crack, just to get some air circulating. All that did was let the humidity in, making it more miserable.

Like I said, the power, thankfully, was only out for a bit this morning. However, it just wouldn't cool off. I turned the thermostat down a bit, hoping that might help. I took a cold shower around 5, which helped for the moment. Later, I actually went to lie down on my bed, right in front of the fan, hoping to cool off. I ended up falling asleep for a little while, but woke up because I was so hot. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, and got up to see what the hell was going on. My thermostat was set at 75, but the temperature of the house read 87!! WTF??!

I checked to make sure the fan was on, then walked over to a vent, thinking that maybe it was just blowing warm air. Well, it wasn't blowing at all! Again, WTF?!

I ran down to the basement, and sure enough, nothing is happening. I checked the circuit breakers, no problem. Then, I opened the front of the furnace. I don't know what the hell I was looking for, but I did notice that the air filter hadn't been changed in a while. So, I grabbed a new filter, slid the old, dirty one out, and started to slide the new one in. I figured, if nothing else, when the HVAC guy came for the inevitable service call tomorrow, he would at least find a clean filter.

As I was trying to slide the new filter in, I somehow bent the cardboard frame a bit, and it fell to the bottom, hitting the blower. Low and behold, it started up. For the third time, WTF?!? I have no idea what made the blower start working again, but you know what? I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

The last couple of days, I feel like the universe has been angry with me for something. Yesterday, when I walked out to take Stud to school, my car was dead. I tried unsuccessfully to jump it from my mom's car before leaving with her for lunch. Then, after lunch, I tried it again. It still didn't work. Last night, after he ate dinner, my poor daddy came over and took care of it for me.

Then, this morning, the power went out. Now, this weird air-conditioner thing. I hope to God it doesn't go out again. My air-conditioning unit is fairly new (less than 3 years) but my furnace/blower is pretty old. I hope I don't have to replace it, cuz that would suck hairy donkey balls.

On a different note, we apparently have big storms rolling through tonight. When I went outside to throw the dirty air filter away, I was stunned to see a light show going on in the distance. I ran back in the house to grab my crappy camera so I could try and capture some of it for you.

Unfortunately, after I downloaded these to my computer, I tried to watch them, and they were almost pitch black. But, I figured, what the hell, I took them for YOU, the least you could do is watch them! ;-)

Ok, I just watched these through Blogger, and they're pretty awful. You can see the lightning, but you can't see what it really looked like. The sky was pretty light, and the lightning show was going on behind a curtain of clouds. Eh, I tried.

July 22

Friday, July 22, 2011

What is your favourite dessert?

Really? Do I have to answer this? The first answer that jumped into my head was, "ALL of them!!" I guess I could narrow it down to chocolate. Although, I do LOVE me some ice cream. But, then again, I've never met a cheesecake I didn't like. Or any cake, for that matter! Oh, and pie!! Yum!! Especially blueberry pie a la mode! Heaven!!

Then again, I'm perfectly happy with some fresh fruit for dessert. Especially something like strawberries and brie. Oo la la, that's some good stuff right there!

Let's not forget about pudding. And mousse. And creme brulee.

A soft, warm cookie with a big glass of ice cold milk would make me happy, too.

Did I leave anything out? Wow, maybe it would have been easier to list what I don't like for dessert. For the record, that's probably limited to things like panatone, or Irish soda bread. Not my cup of tea. Too dry, too tasteless, plus they have raisins. Raisins = little dried up bugs in my food. Not good.

Why don't you guys tell me what YOUR favorite dessert is. Better yet, leave me the recipe!

(as you can see, I'm still procrastinating regarding this resume/job hunt stuff. I suck.)

Whew, that was a close one!

We had a pretty strong storm roll through here this morning. I was actually excited when I saw the overcast, gray sky this morning, and the slightly cooler weather. Well, about 4 minutes into the storm, our power went out. Again. Gah!

Thankfully, this outage only lasted an hour and 15 minutes. Just long enough for the house to feel humid from the windows I cracked a bit because I was feeling suffocated. It was also just long enough for me to finally crack open one of the books in my GIANT stack of summer reads. Now I'm kinda hooked and want to keep reading, even though what I really need to do is finish revising my resume and updating my online application at the community college (which is what I was doing when the power went out). Decisions, decisions....

Day 21

Thursday, July 21, 2011

What is your favourite season and why?

Fall. I think it's obvious why, no? Well, ok, actually I'll explain a little bit. Fall has always been my favorite season. I strongly suspect that has a lot to do with the fact that school starts in the fall. The beginning of the school year has always been my favorite time of the year. The smell of new crayons and erasers, snuggled into a new art box alongside some new pencils, scissors, and glue is the stuff that dreams are made of. That, and new school clothes, new school shoes, new folders, new spiral notebooks are all the things that bring an instant smile to my face.

Besides the start of a new school year, the other (obvious!) reason that I love fall is the weather. It's perfect! Still sunny, yet with a cool breeze, signaling the joy of the upcoming winter weather. I love the "jeans and a sweatshirt" weather of fall. There are few smells I like more than the smell of fall leaves, especially after a rain. Although, I love them dry just as much. Crunching through the dry leaves,or jumping into piles of freshly raked leaves, was so much fun when we were kids. I still love walking through the leaves.

These past few days of unbearable heat makes me long for those cool, fall days. I know it's gonna be a long wait, though, and that makes me a little sad. I'm going to try and focus on the fact that soon we'll be able to have bonfires at night again, where we can sit around making ooey, gooey s'mores, and cracking ourselves up all night. I just hopes I don't have to wait too long.

I just remembered...

...this hilarious picture that I posted last summer. Bestest Friend had sent it to me because I was suffering through teaching summer school in pretty much this same kind of weather. Actually, I was MORE miserable because the Hell-Hole doesn't have airconditioning!!

OK, I know...

...that by now, you're all probably sick of my complaining about our weather. I can hear you all the way over here. "Oh, ChiTown, shut the hell up already!! It's July!" And, I get that. However, if I lived in freakin' Miami, or the Bahamas, I wouldn't be complaining. (ok, yes, I would be cuz I HATE the heat) But, I live in CHICAGO. Yes, we're known for our hot, humid, oppressive summers. But, shit, it's been DAYS now of heat index readings in the triple freakin' digits. Enough, already!!

I went to lunch with my mom today, this is what her car said when we got to the restaurant at noon.
I purposely picked a parking spot under a tree, in the shade. But, at about 1:30 when we came out, it said this!!!Ugh! It's just ridiculous.

Since I'm in a bitching mood, let me tell you what an assbag our new mayor is. He's been screwing with teachers from the moment he was elected. He wants to completely revamp our entire education system, blah, blah, blah. I know I haven't been talking about it, but that's mostly cuz it pisses me off so much, I try not to think about it more than necessary. However, today's little announcement in the news was too good to not share. What a jerk!

I have no words...

...for this new ad campaign from Summer's Eve. (Is it just me, or does their new logo seem pornographic?) My favorite morning show talked about this briefly yesterday, and I only half-listened, as I was in the middle of brushing my teeth. But, now that I've seen the whole mess, I'm really just shocked. I would have sworn these were SNL skits!!! Madrinka posted a link to a hysterical post all about it. Do yourself a favor and check out the link, so you can enjoy her hilarious commentary.

Seriously, WTF?!?!

Cranky Penguin

It's about 2:30 in the afternoon, and I just got in from a lunch date with a friend. I was appalled to see it's currently 97-motha-scratchin'-degrees outside!!! Our heat index is supposed to approach 118 today. WTF?!

Day 20

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

What is your favourite summer food?

I'd love to say something like ice cream, but since that's a 365-day-a-year food, as opposed to a summer food, around here, I guess that's out.

I guess I could say all the fresh summer fruits. Nectarines, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, watermelon...mmmm...now I'm getting hungry. Yeah, I'm gonna go with fresh summer fruits. :)

July 19

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

What was the best vacation you ever took as a child?

Hmmm, this is a tough one. We didn't really take many vacations when we were kids. I mentioned the other day that the first time my mom took us to Italy, I was about 4, my sister was about a year and half, and we went there for the summer, mainly to attend my uncle's wedding. He married a girl from Italy, so they had one wedding there, then came here and had another wedding.

I went to Italy again when I was 8. This time I went with my aunt. Shocking, right? An 8 year old willing to be away from her family for 3 whole months!? The real story is this. My grandparents (my mother's parents) used to go to Italy every year from about May-October, just like my mother does now. We were always sad to see them go. This was back in the day, when EVERYONE could go right to the gate and wait until boarding time. Actually, those are some of my best memories- sitting at O'Hare Airport with my entire family, either saying good bye to my grandparents, or welcoming them back home.

Anyway, that year, I apparently threw a bit of a tantrum at the airport because I didn't want my grandparents to leave, so my grandpa said, "Let her come stay with us!" My aunt was going that summer with my two little cousins, and so my mother actually let me go. I still can't believe it.

As far as vacations with my family, I can really only remember a couple. One year, we went to The Wisconsin Dells. I just remember that our motel room was beyond scummy, and that my mother was PISSED. I vaguely remember being at the Tommy Bartlett water show. The one thing I REALLY remember about that is that when we came out of the show, my dad went BALLISTIC because they had put a Tommy Bartlett bumper sticker on his car. I seriously thought he was going to kill someone.

We took another trip once to Springfield, IL. I have scattered memories of seeing all kinds of Lincoln things. But, the best/weirdest part of that trip is that we got our dog, Oreo, on that trip. One of the hotel maids had a dog that had puppies, and her husband had brought them up to the hotel. (Maybe to show her coworkers? I don't know) He had this cardboard box full of puppies in his truck, and we happened to be walking out to our car when my dad saw them. He's always been a sucker for dogs, so naturally he stopped to look at and play with the puppies. There was one, little tiny fluff of black fur in the corner of the box that caught our eyes. He was the runt of the litter, and could not possibly be cuter! He was pitch black, with stark white paws, and a white patch on his chest. Hard to see how we arrived at his name, right?

My mother carried Oreo around in her purse the rest of that trip. We have some hilarious pictures of that, as well as pictures of Oreo in the grass, sitting between my sister's feet, which were bigger than him. We used the hotel ashtrays (gah! Remember the day when hotel rooms had freakin' ashtrays! YUK!) as his food and water dishes, that's how tiny he was.

As tempted as I am to bore you with memories from more of our vacations, I'm going to stop there. I need to figure out how to open the front door and get my mail without melting. They just announced an excessive heat watch for us here in ChiTown. Good times, good times....

SMILEYGIRL!!!!! This is for you!

And, all the other dog lovers out there. I was snooping around the WGN Morning Show page, and found this. Hell, I'm always so behind the times, you all might have seen this already. I don't know, but it's worth watching again, I think.

NoBloPoMo Day 18

Monday, July 18, 2011

Did you ever go to camp? What was your favourite activity?

Only Girl Scout Camp. My favorite activity was probably making s'mores around the campfire. (You can wipe that surprised look off your face now.)

I'm watching my usual WGN Morning Show, and I just may have to turn it off. They keep talking about this horrible heatwave that is coming this week. It's only 7:15, and it's already 89!!! Our heat index is supposed to hit 100-107 today. And, the best news is - it's only going to get hotter as the week goes on. Isn't that just kick-ya-in-the-crotch-and-spit-on-your-neck great!?

Simple Sunday

Mom and Dad came over for dinner again tonight. I made big, fat, juicy pub burgers on the grill, caprese salad (using fresh basil from the pot on my window sill. YUM!) and bacon & brown sugar baked beans. I also made a skillet-full of caramelized onions, so my parents and I could smother our burgers with them, along with some bleu cheese. Oh, happy day!!

It was WAY too hot for me today, and it's only going to get worse. I'm already getting cranky just thinking about it. Time to go take a cold shower.

I know I can be a whiner sometimes...

...but THIS does not make me happy.

But, I need to remind myself that some people, like Mrs. G., are STILL without power. WTF, Com Ed?! Maybe you can send some cooling thoughts her way.

Friday, July 15

Friday, July 15, 2011

What is the most decadent thing you ever ate?

Wow, seriously, I don't even know where to start with this one. I'm all about decadent things! All the things that are swimming through my head right now naturally involve chocolate.

I guess I'll just tell you about the most recent indulgence. While this isn't the MOST decadent thing I've ever had, it's the first one that came to mind, and it was damn good.

After our end-of-the-year luncheon, I went with a few friends to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert, and I had this little slice of heaven:

Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake Cheesecake.

And, yes, it tastes exactly like it sounds like it would taste. I definitely had a mouth-gasm!!

Thursday, July 14

Thursday, July 14, 2011

How do you like your coffee?

Fresh from my Keurig, extra cream and Splenda, hot or iced, either is great.

A few minutes ago, Suz left this comment about yesterday's post/prompt:

The namblomofoco came up with this question?

I gotta tell ya, Suz, the "mofoco" part made me laugh out loud, cuz it sounds a LOT like something that might come out of my potty mouth! But, I'm with you. Who comes up with these?! What's up with today's prompt? It's kinda like someone took one of the MeMe emails, and is just putting up one question a day, right?

July 13

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Who was the last person you spoke to on the telephone?

My mom.

Alphabet Meme

Alphabet Meme

Because I love Maria, and I want to be her when I grow up.
A. Age
43
B. Bed Size
Queen
C. Chore you hate.
Pretty much all of them. If I have to pick just one, I’d have to say cleaning the bathroom.
D. Dogs.
Just the one, Buster. Or, as he’s known around here – Dorky Dog.
E. Essential start of day.
Coffee, with Splenda and extra cream. It could be hot or cold, either one is fine.
F. Favorite color.
Green.
G. Gold or silver.
It used to be strictly gold, but over the past few years, I’ve switched over to silver. I probably shouldn’t admit it, but I wear both silver and gold every day. My bracelet, earrings and rings are all silver, but I wear a gold chain with gold charms. One is a little boy charm with my son’s birthstone in the center. The other is a mother/baby charm with diamond that my ex-husband gave me the Christmas after my son was born. I wear this chain every single day, and it’s very, very rare that it comes off my neck.
H. Height.
5’3”. Or at least I used to be. I have a feeling I’ve shrunk some over the years.
I. Instruments played.
Most of you know I was a band geek. I played flute and piccolo in the band from grade school through high school. I also taught myself to play the clarinet and saxophone (the instruments my sister and brother played, briefly, in grade school). I can pluck out a tune on the piano, but can’t do chords. I also tried to teach myself to play the guitar, but that didn’t last very long. I couldn’t stick it out long enough to develop the necessary calluses on my fingertips.
J. Job title.
Mom, teacher, in that order.
K. Kids.
Just the one and only Stud Muffin.
L. Live.
In the greatest city in all the world, Chicago!
M. Mom's name.
Roseanne.
N. Nickname.
There are many, most not appropriate for this post. For many years, my ex-husband referred to me as Chilly, as in Chilly Willy. One of Stud’s favorites is Mommy Zommy Salami Swami.
O. Overnight Hospital Stays.
I had my tonsils removed when I was 4. The next stay was when my little darling was born.
P. Pet Peeve
Wow, where do I begin? People who talk during movies, people who leave the toilet seat up, bad drivers…wow, I’m gonna stop right there. I’m starting to sound like a crabby bitch.
Q. Quote from a movie.
"Fuck you, fuck you and fuck you!! Who’s next?”
R. Right or left handed?
Right
S. Siblings.
One of each, both younger than me.
T. Time you wake up.
During the school year, probably 6:00. So far this summer, anywhere from 5:30-7:00.
U. Underwear.
Yes, please. I think is repulsive that some people actually walk around without it!!! Full-coverage briefs, just for the record.
V. Vegetable you dislike.
Eggplant
W. What makes you run late.
In the mornings, when I check my e-mail and/or read my bloglist. I often lose track of time.
X. X rays you have had done.
Dental exams every year. My wrist when I broke it in 5th grade. Many of my spine, thanks to my scoliosis. Chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Do mammograms count?
Y. Yummy food you make.
At the risk of sounding like a braggart, I don’t know where to start with this one. Some of my personal favorites that I make are my veggie lasagna, crock pot Mexican chicken, fudge and taffy apple salad.
Z. Zoo animal.
Do I really even need to answer this one?! Well, I guess there might be one of you out there who’s new so I’d better say it – PENGUIN!
All done. So easy!

Hallelujah!

The power is back!!!

Sadly, some people, particularly those in the northern suburbs, may not have their power restored until freakin' Saturday!!

As you can see on my weather widget, the temps have dropped this afternoon, to the 70s, which is A-OK with me! It's supposed to be in the 70s tomorrow, too. But then, we're going to be back in the hellish 90s by the weekend. Poop.

I was checking out the WGN webpage to find some stuff to share about this wacky weather, and I came across this clip of an interview the morning team did yesterday with Jeff Garlin. It's pretty typical of what this nutty morning team is like.



I'll be back later to catch up on my NaBloPoMo stuff. In the meantime, I need to catch up on my Bloggy Buddies.

I may be gone soon....

...as this is Day 2 with no power!!! I'll bitch about it later, I'm sure, when I'm not 'borrowing' a wifi signal. But suffice it to say, take a look at my weather widget, then think about ME going without power (and MORE importantly air-conditioning!!!!!!!!!) for TWO DAYS! This just may be the end of ChiTown Girl.....

**Update**
From The Chicago Sun-Times
Here's another one

Aren't Sundays supposed to be for relaxing?

This was a very busy Sunday. Really, I'm not complaining. The reason I was so busy is because my sister and parents came over for dinner, so I spent the day preparing. I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures for you guys. I'm sorry. I'll go straight to my room.

I tried a new crock pot recipe. (I can see the shocked look on your faces from here, ya know.) It was a recipe for 'crock pot barbeque chicken,' and it was pretty good. The finished dish is shredded chicken in a yummy sauce, similar to pulled pork. After I put everything in the crock pot, I made a trip to the grocery store this morning to get fresh rolls from the bakery to make sandwiches. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my grocery store's bakery had pretzel rolls. YUM! I bought some of those, and then some big, soft, almost fluffy rolls that are intended to be used to make tortas. I picked up a couple of other things for dinner, as well as some ingredients for a recipe I've been wanting to try all week.

Well, I got home, did some cleaning up, did some laundry, made a homemade spinach artichoke dip, and put it in my small crock pot (g'head, giggle. You know you wanna.) I then screamed at Stud to clean up his crap in the basement so we could eat down there (MUCH cooler in the basement) and finally decided it was time to get started on the dessert. Well, hell's bells, it needed to be put in the freezer for EIGHT HOURS. It would have been fine if we wanted to eat dessert at 11PM, but since that wasn't gonna happen, I needed a Plan B. Which meant ANOTHER trip to the grocery store!

Plan B turned out to be a dessert that my brother and his girlfriend introduced us to several years ago. I'm not sure what it's really called, but I decided tonight that we'll be calling it Ice Cream Lasagna. I'm sure some of you have made it before. Here's one version of the recipe that I found online. I tweaked it a bit, adding caramel topping, and then studding the top with maraschino cherries. You pretty much can't go wrong with this one, no matter what changes you make to the 'recipe.' Again, I wish I had taken a freakin' picture for you. But, then again, it would have just made you jealous, and you probably would have shorted out your computer with the drool that would have been running down your chin. ;-)

Dinner was yummy. We started out by gorging ourselves on the spinach artichoke dip. I made a tossed salad with baby spring greens, red and yellow cherry tomatoes and Gorgonzola, dressed with olive oil & red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and garlic (all emulsified in a jar) and corn on the cob to round out our meal. We were all so full, we had to wait quite a while before bringing out our Ice Cream Lasagna.

We had an amusing evening of chit-chat and LOTS of laughs. Stud kept my mom and sister in stitches, mostly by making fun of me, the little shit! He's got an entire stand-up routine now based on my crock pot obsession. My mom and sister were rolling on the floor. My daddy, of course, was NOT participating in the mommy-bashing my son was doing. (What do you mean that's because he was asleep on the couch?!)

Well, the gang just left, I finished the last of the clean up in the basement, the dishwasher is running, I've changed into my jammies and crawled into bed, and now I'm going to check in on all my Bloggy Buddies. I hope your Sunday was half as enjoyable as mine was. Nighty night!

This is all I got....

Nothing much to say today. I'm completely freakin' exhausted. I just lived through hell (AKA - being stuck with my mother and sister at Costco for, oh, about 6 hours!!!) and I don't even have the strength to come up with a proper post. Sorry. Come back tomorrow.

Day 8

Friday, July 8, 2011

What is going swimmingly in your life at this moment?

Well, first off, I haven't had to go to the Hell-Hole for 2 weeks now. Sa-weet!!

There's some other "stuff" that's going really well right now, but I'm not quite ready to write about it yet. Plus, I'm a little afraid of jinxing things, so I'll let you know when I'm ready to share.

July 7

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Do you consider yourself a strong swimmer?

Abso-luckin-futely! I've been swimming my entire life. My first memory of really swimming, ironically, is being way out in the Mediterranean with one of my mom's cousin on each side of me. I was about 4, and it was the first time my mother took me (and my sister) to Italy. I remember that we we could see giant sea turtles under us, through the crystal clear water.

It's so weird to me that this memory is not associated with any kind of negative or scary feelings, because if I think about doing it now, as an adult, it gives me heart palpitations!!

As far as being a strong swimmer, like I said, I've been swimming my whole life. We almost always had a pool when we were kids. For the few years between pools, my mother always got us a membership at the local park district pool. We would be there literally from open to close. When we had a pool of our own, we would get in it almost immediately upon waking up, and our parents would have to drag us out at night to go to bed. I suppose that's the only way we survived growing up in a house with no air conditioning!!

July 6

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

What kind of fish are you most like?

I guess I would have to say a puffer fish. We're both round!!

Hey, look who's here!!!

I just got back from meeting a very special someone for breakfast. Look!!!(Ok, ignore the ugly beast on the left. My face is even puffier than normal thanks to what I think is some kind of allergic reaction that caused my eyes to swell and itch for the past 3 days.)

Just in case you don't recognize this stunning beauty, it's Jo!! She so happens to be the sister of my Blog Bestie, C. She passed through town on her way to visit her sister.

I SO wish I had known she was coming yesterday. I would have kidnapped her, and made her spend her 4th of July with my nutty family. I didn't find out until after 11pm, when I got home from my parents' house, that she was in town. It just so happened that she was staying the night in the hotel that is directly across the street from our bar! What a co-inky-dink!

We made plans last night to meet for breakfast this morning. We went across the street first so she could check out the bar, and after some gentle prodding, my brother joined us for breakfast.

She is just the sweetest thing. I knew I would instantly love her, cuz I definitely lurve her big sis. I was so tempted to jump into the car with Jo and go along with her to C's house. I'm definitely going to be planning a trip to visit C very soon. I just hope Jo can get another visit in at the same time.

Thanks, Jo, for such a nice visit. And, C, all I have to say is - Nahnee, nahnee, boo, boo!!! I get to have breakfast with your sister!!

Day 5

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Are you scared of being in open water?

Scared to death!! I have a hard time being out on a boat. I need to see the shore. I've gone on one cruise in my life, and I had a VERY hard time looking out at the water because there was no land to be seen anywhere. It scared the ever-livin-shit out of me!!!

Despite the story I shared yesterday, I do not like swimming in the ocean. Actually, yesterday's story is a perfect example of just why that is!

Happy 4th of July!

Monday, July 4, 2011

What is the strangest thing you've ever seen in the water?

I don't know if this is so much strange as it is scary.

While Stud and I were in Italy, we decided to swim WAY out, away from shore. He was only 8 the year we went, so he wasn't the strongest swimmer. He was actually holding onto my shoulders, sort of lying on my back, while I swam. We were swimming along, enjoying ourselves, when I saw what I thought was a plastic bag float to the surface about 3 feet in front and to the right of me. It took about 3.6 seconds for me to realize that, no, it WASN'T a plastic bag, it was a freakin' jellyfish!!! I did an immediate 360, spinning so fast that Stud's hands were still clasped around my neck, but we were now face to face. I swam my ass off, while literally pushing him in front of me. Naturally, you don't really have any idea how far from shore you actually are until you turn around to head back. Well, it looked like we were a mile away, but I managed to get us back to shore in what felt like 4 strokes! Even now, as I type this, my heart is pounding, just from the memory. Yikes!

I hope you all have some fun plans for today to celebrate our country's freedom. We're supposed to have gorgeous weather here today. Yesterday was perfect, mostly in the 70s, which is about my limit. I was outside at about 7:30 this morning watering my flowers and it was just beautiful. Let's see what happens once the sun is up high.

Stud is very excited because his father bought him 2 huge bags of fireworks for today. He has been working on his plan of attack for days now. I just hope an injury is not part of that plan!

Have a Happy 4th of July!

My inner 6 year old is posting today...

I signed on earlier to do my post for the day to fulfill my NaBloPoMo obligation, but as soon as I took one look at my ticker, I got sad and whiny and pouty. Like I said, my inner 6 year old took over. So, I guess this is as good as today's post is gonna get. Nah nee, nah nee, boo boo. I'm sending myself to my room now.

Are you suffering with insomnia?

Well, I've got the cure for ya right here. Don't say I didn't warn you.

We had a weird weather day yesterday. Despite all my worrying, we never had the heat wave we were warned about. I guess it had something to do with the HUGE storm we had the night before. It only made it into the high 80s (did I just say 'only'!?) when all was said and done. Most of the morning here was very overcast, with the strangest clouds I've ever seen. They were SO strange, I felt compelled to take pictures and video for you. You're welcome.

Doesn't this look like a photoshop trick?
I threw this one in here for Suz, C, Smiley, and all the other animal lovers out there. Despite how much I complain about him, Buster is still the cutest dog I've ever seen.I hate the sound of my annoying voice on video, so I purposely didn't say a thing while I was taping this. Just when you thought video couldn't get any more boring....

If you aren't yawning by now, I suggest you call the doctor to get a prescription for Ambien. I tried, people, I tried.

~~I figured out how to add something to my blog the other day. I've got a shiny new penny for anyone who can tell me what it is. :) ~~

Seriously?! It's JULY already?!

Ok, I'm already sad about summer almost being over. I must say, I've thoroughly enjoyed my first week off. Too bad I only have 4 more to go before school starts again. Sorry, I'll stop whining now.

I figured since I was off for the month of July, I might as well try doing NaBloPoMo! I mean, what else do I have to do, right?

Friday, July 1, 2011

Where would you love to go swimming?

Hmmm...let's see...my gut reaction is to say in my BBB (Bestest Blog Buddy!) C's pool! There's been a little chit-chat going on about a certain little penguin heading over to Nebraska, so this just may happen...

Has anyone else out there discovered 7 Little Words? I found it a couple weeks ago while searching through the free apps on my iPod. I'm hooked!!
I went through the free puzzles, and have since purchased another bundle of puzzles, appropriately named Chocolate. If you like crossword puzzles, you'd like this game. It's not as easy as it appears, either. It's the perfect thing for when I'm sitting in the car waiting for Stud, or sitting in the waiting room at the doctor/dentist's office. I've never really carried my iPod around with me, since most of what I do with it requires an internet connection, but thanks to this game, I've started keeping it in my purse. It's much easier to carry around than the giant crossword puzzle book I usually take with me when I know I'll be waiting somewhere. I give it two thumbs up. :)

We are supposed to be hit with record-breaking heat today. They've been talking about it for about a week now. It's supposed to be nearly 100 today, with heat index readings expected to be at or above 103. Yeah, good times, good times... So far, though, it's still in the low 70s, and it's already 11:30. We did have HUGE storms here last night, so I wonder what that means for today's weather. It's very gray and overcast, as it's been since I first went outside at about 6:30 this morning.

I've been worried about this heat warning for today mostly because tonight is the culminating show for Stud's summer drama camp. Last year, because they were doing The Complete Works of Shakespeare - Abridged, they did the show outside, in the courtyard, for a 'theater in the round' feeling. They talked about doing that again this year, but then Bro decided that maybe they should do it in the library this year. Well, the boys made it clear that they wanted to do it in the courtyard, so he relented. However, I impressed upon Stud Muffin that it would not be good for the health of his 79 year old grandmother, or his morbidly obese mother, to be sitting outside in this type of weather. He said he would talk to Bro about it again today. I'm almost hoping it rains again, just so they'll HAVE to do it inside. I know, I'm evil.

Speaking of evil, I suppose it's time for me to go into Evil Mommy mode because a certain teenager is STILL in bed, and it's almost noon! Wish me luck!