Saturday, October 19, 2013

Sweetest Day and a new collection.

For those of you not in the Land of American Greetings, today is Sweetest Day.  What the heck is that?  In my house, it is Swedish Day (just because) and we recognize it as a "5 buck holiday."  When checking over the credit card statement, I noticed that Hubs had an illegal purchase from the resale CD store that he frequents enough to be a coworker. (No lie.  They have a perpetual hold pile for him because they see him so often and know what he likes.)

I texted him a photo of the statement with the word, "BUSTED."

"How could I be BUSTED if I was purchasing something for someone special for a day that I always forget and get in trouble for forgetting?  Did you remember someone special?"

"Please hold."

Dang.  Sweetest Day.  I rushed to the computer and typed in "Sweetest Day 2013."  October 19th.  Whew.

"Nope. I'm good.  It's not until the 19th."  :wipes of the forehead because I would have never heard the end of it:

After school on Thursday, K and I tripped on over to the CD resale store to purchase the beloved gift card for Hubs.  Not only did Hubs get a gift BEFORE Sweetest Day, but he broke the 5 buck rule.

When I was barely awake this morning, a plastic bag wrapped gift slid my way with a library post-it note greeting, "Happy Swedish Day!"  I did what any other wife would in that state.  "If you go to get me my purse, I'll give you what I have.  It's wrapped and everything!"

I handed him the gift card, thoughtfully wrapped in the register receipt.  "$10?!"

"You spent $10!  How could I spend $5 when you spent $10 on the CD you bought me?"

What did he get for me?  Rush Vapor Trails.  He said that every other CD was $2.50, except for the one I wanted.  What can I say?  I have good taste!

Since he watched Indiana Jones and the Tower of Doom for the first time with K last night, he decided to gift her what every little girl her age wants-- Monkey Man and Indiana Jones with the flapping whip.  Of course, she loves them and has a new collection to go with her Star Wars and GI Joe figures.

I told Hubs that when she marries and has full collections of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and GI Joe, her husband will be happy.  We should carry on the tradition.  After all, the Star Wars cardboard cut-outs were at my wedding reception.  Why not hook her up with the same thing?  He has approximately 15 years to work it out.  He should be able to find them by then!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

We've all said it. We've all meant it.

GET ALONG AND STOP FIGHTING!  OPEN THE GOVERNMENT BACK UP!

I know that the lawmakers could care less than to give a hoot's behind about how all of us feel.  If they did, they would have had all of this handled a long time ago.

Am I expecting a miraculous fix to this situation today?  No, because we have a bunch of people that don't want anyone else to win.

It's not about winning and losing, though.  It's about working together.  Clearly, we're sending a message to our citizens and to the world that we can't play nice together and yet, we expect them to.  We get mad at other nations for mistreating their citizens, but they are doing the same to us.  Please don't think that I'm comparing this to chemical weapons.  I'm not.  However, if we expect other nations to treat their citizens humanely, what are we doing?  We're not being a good model.  How would we handle this if this were another nation?  Weren't we mad when North Korea and South Korea had the employment strip in between shut down by the man in charge up north?  How is it that our government could look at that as cruel, but they are essentially doing the same thing here.  (No, not all of the North Korean nonsense.  I'm just talking about shutting down where the people worked.)

We have people on furlough.  Some people will get back pay and some won't.  If they haven't noticed, we've had a bit of a tough economic spot for a while.  There are (and always will be) people living paycheck to paycheck.  They didn't choose not to go to work.  They didn't do something unsavory and are off being punished for it.  We are all being punished for the inactions of a small group of people.

STOP IT NOW.

My husband, not particularly politically minded, is yelling at the TV.  He was watching a crunchy feed of CSPAN on the TV last night (apparently not one of the few channels we get, but it kind of came in.)  He can't get over it.

We truly need for this to be resolved today.  Don't let it hang over.  Work together as you expect everyone else to do.

Fix this problem.

Now.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Goodbye, Old Man.

Our 15 + year old green iguana went up to the collard green patch in the sky this morning.  Spike was the last of our pets that Hubs adopted from the previous park district that he worked for.  He exceeded the expected life span.  I guess we didn't do a bad job in caring for him!

Spike came to us when he was a couple of years old.  He had been a part of a rain forest exhibit in the visitor center where Hubs was stationed.  The decision to have native species only in their animal room was made and Spike (known to them as Iggy) had to go.  Hubs agreed to take him to a reptile rescue and when he did, the rescue looked as if it was in need of rescue itself.  He said that it was crowded, disgusting and that animals were piled onto each other in cages and aquariums far too small.

Iggy came to live with us.

I said his name had to change.

We adopted Spike and had him as a part of our family.  Hubs built him a large, sturdy cage.  One that he would have all to himself!  He had a ladder to climb so that he could go to the loft above to warm himself under lamps.  He had a mama who grew him fresh collards and tomatoes.  He had an outdoor cage when the weather wasn't cold.  We had to have parts of his tail amputated-- twice.  There was a park volunteer who scared him to death and every time she handled him, he dropped his tail.  He ended up developing an infection that didn't rear its ugly head until we got him.  The vet knew us well, but we got him through!

He lived a good life.

He is now buried next to Smudge.  We were certain that they were in cahoots together.  The cat and the iguana team-- together again.