It is because I love my sister and her family that I passed out the only box of Ho Ho's that I owned.

We were lucky enough to have a Hostess/Wonder Outlet right up the street.  I have bought my bread there for years.  We aren't the American white Wonder Bread kind of people.  They had a wonderful bread-- Nature's Pride Double Fiber Whole Wheat bread.  There were times that our favorite bread was $1.99/loaf.  I cashed in when I could find it for 99 cents a loaf.  You see, the normal retail is about $4. a loaf. When you went into the bread store and spent over $5.00, occasionally they would have a rolling rack of freebies to choose from.  A few weeks ago,  they had a rolling rack of Ho Ho's and that is how I scored my box.

K and I went to register her for archery class today.  Since we were going to be half way to my sister's house, I went ahead and phoned for a drive by playing.  She offered lunch of an unknown variety.  I packed a few boxes of Kraft Veggie Mac and Cheese, sweet potato fries and a box of Ho Ho's.  I came in the door, they were all at the table eating and I started the Ho Ho flip.

You would have thought that I brought them all something valuable.

"Wow!"  "It's really a Ho Ho?"

My brother-in-law announced to the family that I just passed on probably $200. in Ho Ho's, to which I exclaimed, "Merry Christmas!  It is because I love all of you so much that I share with you my box of Ho Ho's."  I even left them the box and threatened them not to burn it up in Chief (the wood burner.)

My niece, C, has designs on selling her loan Ho Ho for a profit so that she'll have Christmas money.  I do appreciate her attempt to make some cash.

We're not a snack cake house.  It is because of that that I had to let the Ho Ho free.  I would rather share them with a bunch of kids and family that would truly enjoy them, than to hoard them and keep them for ourselves.

In all seriousness though, I got the voice mail from my mom on Friday about Hostess going out of business.  Mom said that she watched it on MSNBC and since they are the same fine folk who didn't give rave reviews on Apple (go figure since I'm thinking that MS stands for Microsoft and not Multiple Sclerosis and they aren't going to be all pro on their biggest competitor), I didn't really give the Hostess thing a thought.  I was at school all day and had no time to do the bread store run that mom requested.  At the end of the school day, I did have 25 minutes before the bus would come.  I figured that I could fly through, get some bread and get out.

The parking lot was packed, y'all.  There was also a gentleman standing outside the door announcing, "I hope you don't want Twinkies."  "I'm not really a big Twinkie fan, so I'm good.  I just really want some bread."

There were bare shelves.  There was an old woman smacking her man in the arm because he was loading up on bread for the freezer.  Apparently, she was frowning upon that.  The bread I liked was in good stock, but mom wanted Smart White and I could only find one loaf.  I did find 3 packs of English muffins for her and a pack of 12 hamburger buns, where I picked up 6 loaves of our bread and a loaf of cinnamon breakfast bread.  I stood in a line for 10 minutes.  Usually I'm the only one in the store.

Sadly, staff confirmed that they only heard of the closing on the radio.  No one had been phoned.

Are we losing Ho Ho's and Twinkies?  Nah.  Someone will buy the rights and recipes and give them a run again.  We have people losing jobs and the holidays doesn't make it any easier.  We need to lift these people in prayer.  I'm good with giving up the snack cakes.  I'm not good with giving up jobs.  So sad.

We're still here.

We've been working through our kitty mourning.

 I don't wake up to the vittles hitting the metal bowl.

 Hubs doesn't have something furry looping in and out of his feet and around his ankles. Well, if he does now, we need to phone an exterminator!

 My laundry buddy is gone. I would talk with her. Scratch her on the head. She'd beg for more vittles. 

Walking through the kitchen, the pots hanging on the pot rack made the exact same "ting" that Smudge's collar did when it hit the bowl.

 Hubs comes home from work and I have nearly yelled, "I didn't feed the cat!" I've caught myself though.

 I think that Spike (our iguana) misses Smudge. He probably wonders where his partner in crime went to.

 Yesterday and today were grand days for leaving the windows and doors open. The sun was pouring in. Smudge would have been found on the slate pad at the door in a block of sun. She would be on top of the couch (on a towel, of course) sniffing the breeze that came in the window.

 I miss her doing the kitty-scooch shuffle on the couch to shimmy in next to me. Rare were the times that she did that with Hubs. She did that with me most of the time.

Whenever K was sick, she would come and hang out in her bedroom with her. No bites, I promise. She liked to hide under K's headboard. She would shimmy through the backside hole for the trundle. Occasionally we would have to sweep her out with the dust buster. She hated getting the sweep. Normally she would hiss, then she would leave you a very disapproving poop surprise later. Good times.

 On the other hand, my house doesn't smell like cat butt. No matter how much we scrubbed and cleaned, it seemed as though it always smelled of kitty bottom. The litter box was always changed, but Smudge suffered from some issues and she was a butt dragger. No matter when we took her to the vet and had that tended to, she'd come right home and do the kitty shuffle.

 The hair tumbleweeds in the basement have almost all been found. As a long haired cat, she would leave tumbleweeds everywhere.

 I don't miss the kitty litter on the basement steps that fell through the open risers and onto everything below. I don't miss the kitty litter dust.

 K doesn't miss the bites. Neither do Hubs or the neighbor. She didn't bite me. I told her that I'm mom and no bites. For some reason, she listened to that.

 It's been a week. It's hard to believe. For a critter that was with us for 14 1/2 years, it has been a bit of an adjustment. We've made a deal with K. She wants a dog. Longs for a dog. Has been begging for a dog- for years. On her Christmas wish list? Number 1 is "A real puppy." We will get her a dog the spring after she turns 10. That will be about a year and a half. In that time, we'll be able to get together a good game plan. We want her to work on being responsible, since the dog will be mostly her responsibility. She'll be old enough to be able to take good care (with supervision, of course.) We also want to be certain that we can afford a dog. We've explained to her that dogs are not like cats. They take a lot of work and a lot of money. We only want to bring a dog into the family if we have the cash flow to do so. This will give us time to do some doggie research with her. We told her that we'll have her do obedience training. We'll have her scoop poop (we're planning on having a pea stone strip that we hope to train puppy doggin to use for bath rooming, as I don't want a lawn full of puppy land mines.) I'd like to see if we can score a border collie for her. We had one growing up and Pepper was wonderful. K is a high energy kid who would pour her heart and soul into a dog. She would love to have a dog love her and to love on her. She would love to have a dog sleep in her room or at the end of her bed. We have things to work out. We have time. Plenty of time.

 Until then, I'm sure that she'll continue to ask to go to the animal shelter. It'll be soon enough.

Ballot number 26

I'm old fashioned and think that the idea of driving to my voting location ON voting day is fabulous. I woke up at 5:20 AM and couldn't fall back to sleep. I decided to go when the polls opened. I was there at 6:25 AM and waited in a line that stretched out into the parking lot. The air was a brisk 30 F, but no matter. I needed to vote. I did vote. After today, I am excited to get this decided once and for all. I would love to be able to answer my phone, watch my TV and to pick up my mail- all free of political commercial or ad.

She ran off into the kitty sunset.

We're sad here that our 14 1/2 year old Maine Coon made her voyage off to the Kitty heaven this morning. I knew that she was having a little bit of breathing distress yesterday afternoon and knowing her age and the way that it had come about, we knew that this was the signal that the end was nearing. This morning, Hubs and I were in the basement with Smudge and that is when her little kitty legs went running, despite the fact that she was lying on her side. She breathed her last and we were with her. Hubs went to work late and we just went to Sunday School so that Smudge could be properly laid to rest. In the middle of the night, there will no longer be the thumperness against the side of the litter box. She will no longer trick us into giving her two servings of food. No more kitty bites. No more hide and seek turds. (Her favorite way of letting you know that she was mad at you.) She was certainly not the kindest of kitties. K has a recent scar from a Smudge attack. Still, she was ours and we loved her and her quirks. We are so sad. :(

Hanging at the dealership.

The RAV maintenence light came on a few weeks ago. I knew that I needed an oil change. I made an appointment today, made mention of the airbag light staying on twice, found that there were "three other campaigns" and we're sitting for a long stay. It truly is why we have our oil changed at the dealership. They can pull for recalls and we can get it taken care of lickety split.

Or just lickety. Since I'm still here, I'm thinking that split isn't quite it yet. For the time being, K is becoming quite proficient at operating the vending machines. :)

ETA: Another great reason to go to the dealership- apparently, there is a pipe at my catalytic converter that is rusted. They are ordering a new part and since it falls under warranty, it will cost us nothing. Hooray!

Math, Guatemala, the boat anchor and one hot mess.

Math: I am happy to report that K got a C+ on her latest math test! Of course, that was only after I ended up at K's school before classes started and accidentally cried because K got a zero on a math quiz and was so upset about it and that we took her out of the after school program that she vomited. She's going to the math tutor everyday now. We're looking at a D for math on her report card, but she has worked so hard for it. Everything else is all A's and one B. The sad thing is that she will not get merit roll because of the D and that will make her sad. Next time.

Guatemala: There was guy who came into work last week and after putting all pieces of the story together, I've found that he asked several of us to travel with him to Guatemala over the Christmas holiday. We were giggling about it yesterday.

The boat anchor: That would be what our neighbor is falling the computer. He said that he's seen nothing like it. They still have it Geek ICU, but we don't have much hope.
One hot mess: That would be the hurricane-force winds that we're dealing with. We've hit 75 MPH winds and all schools are closed. They talked about closing where I work. "But it's just some wind," I said. Yup. Wind and rain that closes tons of stuff. K is happy. She gets to go hang with her cousins today.

That's my lame update. Typing big paragraphs with the Kindle is difficult, especially with auto-correct. You never know what auto-correct will give. :s

Hang onto your hat today!

So tired of the negativity.

Seriously, I would love to watch TV without all of the negative attack ads. I would love to answer my phone without looking at the caller ID. I would love to pick up my mail without ads spilling from the in betweens- on a political side that I've never subscribed to. I am so tired of it. I cannot be the only one.

I admit that it isn't just that. I have found out why people only serve the one term as PTA President that they do. There is always someone telling me what they would do different. I loved getting text messages at 6:20 AM from someone who disagreed with how I handled a situation. Not just one message was sent over, but three to four. Oh yes. Good times. There were duties left unfinished and since they were very time sensitive, I opted to sit Friday and get the task all done. I've had people insert themselves to positions that didn't exist, I have people with control issues, I have people who have a difficult time remembering that this is not a paid position and that we have families, jobs and lives that exist outside of the confines of the PTA walls.

Don't get me wrong. It isn't all bad. Through all the crub, I am happily confident in the candidates that I am voting for. I also have wonderful PTA folks who are absolutely happy to do anything and yes, I practice having them say, "No," so that I know they can say it. We have teams of people who rotate weeks on handling different tasks and people who are honest with me in a loving and constructive manner. I have people and a principal willing to work with me to get things done for our 530 children. I am thankful that we do have parents so dedicated and willing to make everything that they can happen for our school.

The negativity has just all piled at once. Couple that with an ailing computer that is not allowing me to get things completed and it kind of makes me cranky. I would live it if everyone and everything would just cooperate and not be so yucky. Some day the dust will settle with everything, right?