Saturday, July 25, 2009

Trauma of the week

Guess what was outside the apartment building. A snake. Thankfully a dead snake but all the same a snake.
Now, before I moved here my husband told me that it was entirely possible I could live here in Texas and never even come across a snake. Well, he was quite obviously wrong. This is the second snake I have seen in a residential area. The first was a ribbon snake lying on the concrete at the end of someone's garden. I saw that one when I went for a walk. It was far enough away from where I live for me not to be too worried but still, it was a snake. This one though is a big one and it is right where I live. Scary.
Oh I also saw a big snake when we went to a park but noone lived there so that was sort of okay.
I'm not used to coming across these scary things anywhere other than in a zoo so it is a bit traumatic for me to find one on my doorstep (almost literally).
All I can say is thank god for the person who killed it because I might just have had a heart attack if it had been alive.
I'm not really one for killing big things (this counts as a big thing) but really it is a pest. Whilst I would love to be all...I could never harm a fly....the fact of the matter is I could. I squish bugs and spiders all the time but I don't know if I would have had it in me to squish this. Thank goodness I didn't have to find out.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Apple chips

So I had the urge to bake something nice and since I have a lot of apples that are about to turn I have been looking up apple recipes.
One that caught my eye immediately was for apple chips (or crisps as I call them). So I decided to make them today. The recipe was beyond basic and I love fruit and veg chips.
My husband had asked me to make him chocolate chip cookies so I was doing that straight afterwards. It was one of the Betty Crocker mixes so I hate them as they have six billion too many chocolate chips in them.
Anyway, my chips required a lower temperature than the cookies did but I was getting fed up of waiting so I upped the temperature and the plan was by the time I was ready to put the cookies in my chips would be done.
Here are the chips:I bet you are thinking....mmmm they look delicious. Well, who knows. They have been disguising their secret scrumptious flavor underneath the charcoal smell.

The cookies came out great by the way. Shame I don't like them. I have just pulled out of the oven an apple cake creation which looks pretty good. I'm just waiting for it to cool down so I can taste it.

Monday, July 20, 2009

I forgot to post this before

That job I went for. I didn't get it. I have to say I am kind of relieved as it was a step down for me but a big part of me is annoyed because how dare they reject me. I emailed them over a week ago for feedback from my interviews and as of yet no response. That just goes to show that they would have been a real class act to work for. God, even just a response saying someone else was better qualified would have been acceptable but nothing...that is just rude.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

I must have been a horrible child...

...because there is a dead frog outside and I am fascinated with it. It has been there for days and today I felt compelled to take a picture of it. It is the best I can do seeing as it would be completely inappropriate for a grown up to pick up a dried flattened frog just to have a better look. I've seen squished frogs on the roadway a few times so it isn't uncommon but this one was massive.
I remember playing with bugs as a kid and I do remember crying after my snail collection ran away but that all faded after I hit the age of 8 or 9....or so I thought. Obviously I am posting a picture of it. Funny, it doesn't look so squished in this picture. I wish I could have got a picture of the blood splatter too because that would have made my picture a thousand times better but I guess there was some rain or perhaps the sprinklers washed it away.
I'm not particularly interested in gross things like this but I "felt a connection" lol. Oh well, lets hope the dead frog is happy now in froggy heaven.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Mini tornado in the swimming pool

This was such a weird thing and I wish I wasn't the only one to have seen it because probably no one will believe it.
I was swimming the other day and there was a big gust of wind. It blew into the pool and it was like a mini tornado had hit. When I say it was mini I really do mean mini. I do like to exaggerate from time to time but I'm not going to sit here and say (type) a massive tornado came at me or anything. It was big enough that it blew our floaty noodle things around and it was heading towards me. Obviously my curse of an overactive imagination led me to believe that it was headed for me as some type of personal I must get her kind of thing and that somehow this mini tsunami type thing was going suck me under in the pool and drown me so I hopped over to the other side of the pool as quick as I could. Very gracefully I might add.
Now somehow my husband didn't see any of this and when I kind of brought it up in conversation I got the feeling he didn't believe me but it was true god damn it and it was really weird so I thought I would share.

Monday, July 13, 2009

My almost runaway dog

We had a close call today. My dog likes to try to escape. It is what he does. He wants to break free into the great wide open. He is a totally pampered pooch though so I don't think he realises he hasn't got the wherewithal to survive without us. He is a really well behaved dog when he is inside but the moment he goes outdoors it is like another dog. He won't do anything other than what he wants to do hence the fact that he only ever gets off his leash at the dog park. Around here he just wouldn't come back if he was called. I'm really good about keeping a tight hold on his leash especially because he is a husky and therefore technically a "pulling" type dog but today ooooh it was a close one. I think he had thought out this elaborate escape plan and thought today was the day to give it a try. I had my hands full of mail and two (yes TWO) full poop bags and we were crossing the road when he suddenly pulled away. My hold on the leash was quite lax as he was totally faking being hot and pooped out (haha get it?). I'm not sure whether he realised he had gotten away or not but he started picking up his pace so I am thinking yes. You should have seen me move. I was good. I didn't want to run at him because then he would know he was free so I walked really fast behind him and then pounced. Yes, I really did pounce and stood on the end of his lease. It was so funny. He tried to make a run for it but couldn't. Hahahaha puppy you couldn't get away.

A couple of weeks ago there was a big dead dog by the side of the freeway and my husband jokingly suggested that we take our dog to show him what happens when naughty doggies run away. It was mildly amusing at the time but now I'm thinking we should have done it.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

A really crap day

Wednesday July 8th 2009 - seriously crap day.
Just nothing went right. I felt like shit from the moment I got up and it just went downhill from there. I had been slacking on the housework stuff and had a mountain of laundry to do. Like you could not believe how much laundry two people can produce. So, I stuck the first load on and took the dog for a walk. I got back and had a cup of tea and watched some rubbish on telly and thought...oh I better get cracking and pop the next load in. So off I went to put the first lot of washing into the dryer and as I pulled my hand out I thought...shit, why is there so much water in here. The bloody washer had stopped mid cycle and wouldn't work. I was well hacked off. After half an hour of trying to fix it an huffing and puffing I gave up.
Something else broke. I can't remember what it was now but that annoyed me too. I was in a foul band and thinking back now I must have just sat stewing all day because it seemed to go from morning to afternoon very quickly.
Anyway, I just gave up on the day and decided to write it off, go back to bed and watch a dvd. Well, I couldn't get the flippin dvd player to work which just complimented the rest of the day really so I got a book (can't really break one of them can you?) and hibernated until dinner time.
Oh, the dvd player just wasn't connected to the telly because the netflix box was plugged in so later we watched The Unborn. It was good. The bit where the old dude and the dog had their heads on upside down...very freaky. They blatantly made the ending an opening for a sequel. It is so tacky when films do that. We know movie makers are all about the money but at least try and disguise your greed somewhat.

My first Independence Day

This past weekend was absolutely exhausting. This was my first Independence day so we were definitely going to do something. We were invited to spend the day on a boat which was a lot of fun. It was very hot and I was very sweaty - yuck - but we went swimming which was fun at times and scary at others. The fun bit was I had never swam far out from the shore before and I was very impressed with how brave I was. It was also lovely to get in the water to cool off. The scary bit was there were things in the water which you didn't really know what they were and you just hoped they were only fish. Near where we parked (moored? anchored?) the boat there were signs a way off saying there were alligators. Now I am only used to seeing alligators on the tv or in the zoo so this was very scary. I didn't see any though thank God. I did see some at a park a few months ago - very scary. They can eat people you know.
Anyway, it was a very nice day and we sat on the boat and watched fireworks.

Sunday was going to be my recover from babysitting do nothing day but we did end up going out. I can't remember why now but it was still quite a lazy day.

Monday we went to a water park. I have never been to one before so it was interesting in that respect. I thought they would have a normal swimming pool there along with the rides and stuff but they didn't. I highly recommend they get one. I went on a couple of rides and went on the floaty river thing a few times but it got really busy and people kept banging into me and bumping my sunburn so I got annoyed with it seeing as I am allergic to most people.
I had had enough by about 3pm so I just wanted to sit under the covered pavilion thing. Obviously I had way too much sun because I got heat stroke (or as my husband insists heat exhaustion). Finally we went home at about 5.30pm and I just conked out. I was sick and very tired.
Next time a trip to a water park is suggested I think I will pass. I've tried it once...didn't like it.

Friday, July 3, 2009

I have sunburn

We have spent the past couple of days in the swimming pool as we have been babysitting and it has been a good way to occupy the kids.
I have been very good about using sunscreen but apparently not good enough. After spending 5 hours at the pool today I noticed when I got inside that I was rather red. As the evening wore on I was just getting redder and redder and after I had a shower I discovered white patches along the top of my arms. Obviously I had rubbed sunscreen in some places better than others. This is really annoying because it hurts a bit and we are supposed to be going out on a boat tomorrow so I will have to be really careful not to make it any worse. Then Monday we are going to a water park.
I am deathly white normally so any hint of sun on my skin is really obvious and I hate having red and white stripey skin. It looks so unladylike. Also, I have really freckly arms now and my forehead is covered too.
I can't wait until winter.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Michael Jackson Tribute at Discovery Green

Tomorrow at Discovery Green they are having a Michael Jackson dance party tribute from 18:00 until 20:00. They are going to teach people the moves to the Thriller dance.
I would love that shit. Of course I can do my own moves to Thriller but to actually learn the proper moves would be beyond awesome. I would be doing it constantly. I can't go though :( If I could go I would try so hard to get my husband to learn the dance even though I know he would never. It would be some seriously fun stuff if he did. Ah the thought is cracking me up.