dixiblog.com

my friend julie’s newest addition - Lily! she looks a lot like my cat, smokey. smokey is the bitchy cat. i think smokey has kitty bipolar. Lily, however, is quite sweet and playful.

that old house/building thing…i think it’s interesting to look at.

i tried to take some pix of the butterflies and hummingbirds–they’re back! but they moved too fast for me today. so it’s just another flower shot…maybe tomorrow.

They were looking for a leak in the unit next door, and decided, eventually, that it was our dryer vent clogged. And it had to be pulled out. By tearing out the floor in our sunroom. Which means I spent the day entertaining the landlord and the maintenence guy. That’s every bit as fun as it sounds.

What a mess!

Vega the cat flees the scene after being spied exploring the holes in the floor.

    

The floor was torn up all day, plaus a big hole in the laundry room, with all the stuff from the sunroom stacked in my bedroom. This was from about 9am until about 4:30pm, with a couple hours off for lunch (or good behavior, depending upon perspective).

Didn’t get much work done today. Go figure.

Add to this mix a tech problem to figure out and a chattier-than-hell landlandy who, among other things, talked to me about: her friends, her kids, her “female” health issues (breifly, thank god), many other things i did not retain AND cleaned lime scale out of my toilets and wanted to scrub my tub. She also changed my “filthy” furnace filter and gave me several mini-pep talks about maintenence. She was nice enough about it…she’s an older lady and tends to go on.

But when they left, the tube was replaced, the smoke alarm on the vaulted ceiling was fixed, the broken stove handle was reattached and the door that’s been off it’s hinges since we moved here was repaired. And my dryer works just like a brand new dryer now. That tube has been clogged a long time.

So you know. It was stressful, but it’s good to have stuff working right, too. Especially when I don’t have to do it. And they’re done!

“Someone in Indiana won my money,” declares my husband.

“What?” I am appropriately disturbed.

“Yep. Somebody in Indiana won the $300,000,000.”

“How rude! That was for us.”

“I know,” he replies. “But whaddya gonna do?”

“I guess we’ll get the next one, then. It’s certainly our turn!”

He agrees. So it’s the next big jackpot, then. It’s agreed.

I scared off a collector today. I consider that no small feat. It wasn’t my collector, mind you. All my bills are paid at the moment, thank you very much. I am grateful for that…to be honest, I am not completely sure whose collector it was. I answered the phone, knowing it probably wasn’t anybody I wanted to talk to.

“Hello. I’m trying to get ahold of a relative of yours.” I was expecting to hear my stepdaughter’s name. “Lorriane Shillcutt?” I. don’t. think. so.

“That’s my husband’s ex-wife!” I snarled.

“Oh, ok, sorry. Bye.” She was off the phone in a flash. Evidently, the disgust in my voice was enough to scare her off, just like that.

I don’t know if they were really looking for the ex, or looking for her as a contact listed for the kid. Because there’s no way they should be calling here looking for her, for Holy Hell’s sakes.

Damn collectors.

We go outside, on the way to the store. Bailey, who claims to be allergic to the sun, naturally decides to complain–more for my benefit than the drive to voice any actual complaint, mind you. Giving each other shit is one of our favorite mother-daughter activities, after all. (There’s a reason why my friends laugh if I complain about her giving me shit, and respond with something like, “Geeeeeeee, I wonder where she got that, Dixie….”)

But I digress. We’ve just stepped outside.

“It’s so hot and bright out here!” she complains, basically to be a shit. “I have sensitve skin.” Her sensitive skin is also a running joke. She says no one can hit her, or look at her too hard, or expose her to direct sunlight, you know, since it harms her sensitive skin. I think her skin has even reacted to verbal stimulation, on occassion. It turns red. Just ask her. It’s very sensitive, you know.

“What? You say that like it’s a bad thing. Hot and bright is great–that’s just like me! Hot and bright! Hot and bright! Just like me: hot and bright.” I’m incredibly pleased with myself to have thought this up. Bailey winces, and I know by that I have a winner here.

“What? That is so not cool, Mom. You shouldn’t say that to me. That’s disgusting. Not cool at all.”

“Not cool. Hot and bright! Hot and bright! I like that. How can the day be bad, if it’s hot and bright, just like me?”

She groans. I laugh manically. “Hoooot and briiiiight. Hoooot and briiiight! Oh what a happy, happy day it is, so nice and hoooot and briiiight!” I enjoy making up nonsense songs just to make her groan and flinch. I’m not disappointed. “Your dad would agree with me. He’d say I’m hot and bright.”

“That doesn’t count,” she claims. “He has to say that. He’s married to you.”

“So what? That doesn’t make any difference. He doesn’t have to say that! Some married people would not say their spouse is hot and bright. It counts! And you say he’s so smart. You kids think your Dad is damn near a genuis. So if he thinks I’m hot and bright, it must be right then, huh? Hot and bright! Hot and bright.”

“That’s not the same thing. He has to say that. He wants to have sex with you.” I think she realized her mistake as soon as she’d said that.

“Well yeah! Of course he does. I’m hot and bright. Why wouldn’t he? But that has nothing to do with it. We do that because we like to.”

“I don’t want to hear about that! Aghhh!”

I laugh. Life’s pretty good, for those of us who are both hot and bright.

Damn. The last couple of days have been rough for me, work-wise. I’m behind on layout mockups for a client–and these are stressful for me to do. Aesthetics are so subjective, and i have to come up with designs for their website. I make image files to demonstrate the designs, and they look them over. And then, when they pick one and we hammer out the details, I have to actually make the damn things. I’m so not in the mood.

But anyway, I’m behind. And I’m busy. And I missed renewing a client’s domain name. So, because I missed this, their website has been replaced with a big ol’ honkin’ ad. Eek! I can usually fix this kind of thing within a couple of hours, but I wasn’t so lucky this time. I worked on it all day yesterday off and on and got nowhere.

(more…)

had a busy weekend. worked a lot, on my low carb site.

 i’m making progress, fighting through it a little at a time. there’s a big learning curve for the software i choose. i knew that going in, but decided it’s worth it. the software is very powerful and scaleable and flexible and has lots of addon and plugins and such so, in the long run, i’ll make it sing, man.

i’m on a tight schedule, as i’d like to have it finished in the next couple of weeks. while that sounds like plenty of time, it’s not so much as you’d think. i can’t get hung up on stuff, man. gotta keep moving.

still, i’m feeling very good about it. i’m learning. i’m making progress. gradually, it’s coming together. so it’s all good.

Parenthood has been on my mind lately. Go figure. One of my kids just turned 18, and I’m sort of getting to know another one, and sometimes hearing from the other, troubled one. And me? I’m still trying to figure out what the hell I think of it all…I’m far from figuring it out. I’ll tell you that, for sure. But I am getting some ideas. They come and go. They don’t burn my brain too much.

I think maybe most parents want something pretty simple from their kids, in the big picture. You want them to take care of their own shit. Do you know what I mean?

I think almost everything I’d hope for out of my kids could be summed up in those few words: Take. Care. Of. Your. Own. Shit. That’s it. (more…)

Today, my baby is turning 18! Sorta makes my head spin, when I think about it.

We have a low-key birthday celebration planned today, which is pretty much our style. Calm. Y’kno?

This morning, Bailey baked a birthday cake and decorated it. We went to Office Depot and she picked out a new office chair. That, along with a new flatscreen LCD montior, are her big presents. Later, we’ll have some more gift time, it’s Pizza for dinner, and some ice cream and cake.

So far, she says she’s feeling pretty spoiled, so that’s good. 18 is a big birthday, and I want her to enjoy it and feel appreciated. She is. She’s a damn good kid, and don’t anybody think for a fucking second I don’t know it. I know good when I see it. Hell. She’s honest, kind, sincere, caring and sensible. She loves us and hates drama.

You know, I wasn’t in a hurry to be a mom. But I’m glad I am. I don’t think I could have gotten a better kid…I love ya, sweetie. Happy 18th birthday!

Taken around my place. Click on the image for a larger version…

These purple puffs remind me of growing up. We used to have a lot of these when I was growing up and sniffing them takes me right back…

I love the Trumpet vines. I was hoping the hummingbirds would come back when they started blooming, but I’ve only spied one hummingbird this year…

Another “Trumpet” - These bloom big, beautiful and perky.

Lily - Just like my friend J’s latest addition to her family (Lily the Cat).

This one’s awfully pretty for a weed, huh? 

I usually plant these Impatiens every year. They blooms so much, all summer long, that I really get a lot of enjoyment out of them. It’s like a sea of blooms.