Just doing my part

Just like Mrs. S over at Snarkolepsy I'm doing my part to ruin the earth.

I ordered this cake pan along with a couple other things from Target.com. Not only did the rest of my order ship completely separately, but I got the pan, which is less than 2 inches thick in this HUGE ASS box.

Of course, 95% of the box was stuffed with those air filled plastic pillows.

WTF is up with that??

But I'm totally excited to try out my new cake pan. Look, it makes CAKESICLES!

AAAAAaaahhhHHHH!!!!

New toy!!!

Now if I can figure out how to use it.
For real, no user manual.

Just in case anyone is wondering what 175 EUROS looks like.

Here ya go



Yeah, woo-FRACKING-hoo, more drugs for me. Maybe this time I will take a picture of the belt of bruises I get from having to inject myself with an anticoagulant twice a day.

Probably not, that's not an image for public consumption.

When discussing my blood thinning treatment Herr Doktor tells me:
"If you have bleeding, you MUST come in."

Well, I'm no medical expert, but DUH!

Back to School

WOOO!!

I actually feel kind of bad that I'm so happy that school is starting again.

But I am.

I think that Piko de Gallo is just as happy to be seeing her friends again, and having something new to do.

Anyway, BTS shopping is not quite as good here as it is back home. I guess I'm just a little surprised that the BX on base does not coordinate with the schools a little better. It seems like they should carry whatever is on our school supply list. But not so much. And it's not very easy to shop locally since it is considerably more expensive, and there are different size/dimension standards. It's not horrible, but they did not bring in any pencil boxes, fat pencils, or plain pink erasers. All of which were on our list. Most people end up having family or friends back in the states send them stuff, but really, what a hassle. Not "I'm so mad about this that I want to kill someone", but more like "What's the deal man."

On a more positive twist, since there were no pencil boxes I did get to try out a new sewing skill.

I sewed my first zipper. I'm sure I did it wrong, but it zips properly and that's all that counts.

I made Piko deGallo a pencil pouch.

Here is a detail of the little bird I embroidered. It's actually chirping her real name, but I decided to block that out.

Day Trip to Trier

Sunday we drove down to Trier, which is the largest city near us. It is apparently the oldest city in Germany, and is known for it's Christian reliquary collection, wine, and original Roman architecture.

We of course went for the shopping. Though, it was Sunday, so none of the reguar shops were open, but there was a handcraft fair at the Porta Negra.

There were some very beautiful things, and a booth with great Regency/modern style hats, but at 60+ Euro, nothing I could aford.

There were some blacksmithing demos, which was fascinating to Piko de Gallo.

What was truly fascinating to me however was the abundance of "manpris".

This picture, also an example of a German line-up. If you're wondering where the actual line is...that's right!! There is none.
Daddy manpris.
Even the older guys were getting into it. Egads!
I swear I even saw a guy at the bus stop wearing a pair of pris, and Teva style sandals with socks. How do you say "NO!" in German? Nein!!!Nein!!! Nein und abermals nein!!!

Sarge had told me about this "style" when he was deployed. He said that it was very popular among the UK and Australian soldiers. I didn't believe it until I saw it myself. Yikes!

So, Sarge had a hard time getting served at the waffel booth, because he didn't know where the line was. Well, duh, there is not line, hello, German style. I told him that he should buy himself a pair of pris, and the next time his wait will probably be shorter. No f-ing way, he tells me. And actually, I can't imagine it either, gives me chills.

Trouble on Am Schmeideberg

We got trouble, with a capital T that rhymes with P and that stands for

POWER SURGE!!!!

Yes, we've been watching The Music Man, and yes, MdG, make big bang...AGAIN!!!

There was a thunder storm here the other week, and the only thing I forgot to unplug was the telephone. Well, apparently the telephone pole outside is taller than our roof.

SHAZAM!!!

It actually blew the DSL splitter apart, and off the wall!! Fried the modem, and possibly my old computer, which will not turn on now. Old houses, gotta love them.

In other Germany news...

Ikea, why do you not take Visa or Master Card?!?!?
Seriously! We got up to the checkout, and oops, I had to run to the ATM. I suppose it really was my fault since I didn't look for the Visa/Master Card sticker on the entrance. So I was a sucky American, since I was not prepared.

However, Germany, you have the most awesome bicycle stores EVER!! We went to one today that had a little track around the display area where you could try out any bike or other ride on they had in the store.

I of course rode a scooter, but Sarge was too busy looking at padded pants to take our pictures.

Tomorrow is Piko deGallo's 6th birthday!!! And she has her first loose tooth!!

Target. WhatTheWhat??!

Oh Target how I love thee. I really will miss walking the halls of the bullseye on a regular basis. However your on-line site is made of win too, so there is some slight relief there.

But what's up with this??

I bought some rain boots for myself, some school shoes for Piko deGallo, a t-shirt, and a solar system mobile. I was taking advantage of their free shipping offer.

I got 4 different "Your order has shipped" confirmation e-mails!!

No, not that they e-mailed me 4 times to tell me that my order has shipped. 4 separate shipments!!

Is that normal? I suppose it could be that each item is coming from a different fufillment warehouse, but still. I guess I should just smile and be happy that I got free shipping on all of the items.

Come on, it's not just me, that's weird.

P.S. Mrs. S. I looked up the word for composting bin. BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAA!!
it's Kompostierungssortierfach. Like I'm even going to to be able to say that to my landlord!! 25 letters man!!

We're off! Yay?

Maine ho!!!!

Woo-freaking-hoo. It's finally starting to get warm here, and we're heading off to the land of 6 foot snow drifts.

It's better than here though I guess. Monday night the PTA imploded, the new board cut funding for almost all of the student activities the previous board was supporting. They blamed the previous board for mismanaging the budget, and for sabotaging the latest fundraiser (whhhaaaa????). I did get my money for the Science Fair refunded though, so there was a plus for me. I'm seriously hoping that the next school we're at has a PTA that can actually work together, and do, you know, work.

So away from here, to the frozen north. It's going to be a great visit, I can already tell. The other night Piko deGallo tells Sarge.

"Do Grandma and Grandpa have more than one TV? I don't want to have to watch CRAP IDOL with them."

I swear, Sarge must have peed his pants from laughing so hard.

I'm looking forward to going to the discount fabric store. Thank goodness we got our tax return!

And so I find that it is Wednesday.
Looking at my calendar I realize that not only is next week Valentine's day, but I have a mini mural to do for some officer's club. Oh yeah, by tuesday. Oops.
I kind of ranted a bit last time about having to do a last minute mural, but who the heck am I kidding, that's the way I work even when I have a 3 week lead time.

I guess this means that I'm off to the store to pick up my painting supplies. So I'm off, and it's a bit early so Michael's is not open yet, so I hit the Target next door. I need some lightbulbs anyway.

8:30 am in the middle of the week, I figure I'll pretty much have the place to myself. Not so much.

The hell?!?! Target is chock-a-block full of mothers and their young spawn precious angels. Which, hey, I get. They probably have been up since 5 am (which is when Piko used to get up), and need something to do, Target is clean, open, and probably empty. Kids are fine, don't get me wrong, I like kids, have one of my own. What I hate is this:

Mommy: Don't touch!
Mommy's Little Angel (MLA): I'm nawt towching.
Mommy: Don't!
MLA: I'm nawt!!!
Mommy: Don't touch that or I'll put you in the cart!
MLA: OOOOHHH!!! Look Mawmeeeeeee!!!!!!! Can I have some candy?
Mommy: I said don't touch that!
MLA: I'm nawt. Candy Mawmeee!!
Mommy: No!
MLA: Caaaaannnndddeeee!!!!Maaaawwwwmmmmeeeeee!!!
Mommy: Didn't I tell you not to touch?! I'm going to put you in the cart!
MLA: No cart Mawmee!!

I swear to whatever deity is the most powerful!!! Put your damn kid in the damn cart already!! I'm not buying anything from that aisle because I can hear very well that they touch everything in it!!! Can a person not browse the totally cute baking and packaging aisles in peace?!?!

I'm so evil, but when I'm with Piko and we hear that kind of behavior, and if she is behaving herself despite outside influence. I loudly offer to buy her some candy.
Evily.

Slutty or Not?

So I'm going to Sarge's squadron's Christmas party this year. That means I have to dress in something other than jeans and sneakers. Bah.

I'm looking for a pair of heels, and kind of want to get these. Yeah, yeah, they're from Frederick's of Hollywood, but that was pretty much the only place I could find them within my price range, I don't want to spend more than $40.00 for a pair of shoes I'll only wear about 2x a year. But I like the heavy ankle strap look.

So the question is, are they too slutty? And are they AA(Age Appropriate)?

I will be pairing them with a pretty conservative skirt and blouse, what I might call, "Stealth Slutty".

The Sacrifice, and the Reward.

Here is the sacrifice.

That is 4 bags of toys and clothes that Piko and I cleaned out of her room to donate to the thrift store. 4 BAGS!!! This does not even count the one huge bag of things we threw away.

And here is the reward.


Now, I know, I know. We just cleaned out that room. Look at how nice it is!

The floor!!! I can see a sea of floor!!

And then we add a new toy.

Well, we went to Build-a-Bear because well, we NEVER go there. NEVER. My sister-in-law ruined us by taking Piko there when we were in Hawaii. She actually refused to tell me where they were going because she was afraid I would say no. I wouldn't have, it's just something that Sarge and I don't do. But as it turns out, surprise, surprise, Piko loved it, and loves her doll, Kiki.

So back to why we ended up going to B-a-B. One of Piko's favorite shows is Clean House. I don't know why. Anyway, while we were cleaning her room I kept talking like Niecy Nash. "Foolishness!!! unh!" "Get rid of the clutter!! uh-huh, that's what I'm talking about!" Anyway, it worked so well, that I decided (after talking with Sarge) that I would offer her a Clean House like reward. For those who don't watch, Niecy usually offers rewards as incentive for people to get rid of things. It's usually big ticket items like furniture or flooring. I didn't want to take her to Toys R' Us or anything like that with Christmas looming in the future. So I thought why not something that we would not normally do.

Now Kiki has a new friend named Tabbytha, as well as a clean house.




And all three of them like Mythbusters.

My new BFF

I'm in love.

I found this old Montgomery Ward sewing machine at the thrift store about a month ago. I bought it for less than $20.00, and figured what the heck, at that price it'll be a good backup machine. I figure for $20, plus about $60 for servicing and a new bobbin casing (which was the only thing missing) I can save some money, and put off buying the Janome I really wanted to get. And I even saved money still over the crap a$$ Brother I'm currently sewing on.

Well, I took it to my machine guy for a good cleaning and servicing, now it sews like buh-ddah! (Ha, I originally typed "buddah" but you would be all "I dodn't know that Sidharta Gautama was a sewer"). Originally when I first got it, it was loud, and kind of jerky, sort of clack-a-clack-a-clack-a-clakc-a, it would miss stitches and the thread would break no matter what the tension was set at. I was actually kind of worried/upset about my lack of good find. But Sarge convinced me to take it to the repair place. Now it hums right along very nicely. Mike, my machine guy says that it should hold up very nicely against those tough new Air Force BDUs, and outlast any of the newer machines I could possible buy.

Still not a fan of a front loading bobbin, I do wish it was a drop in.

I am so weak

I just ordered these shoes.

As I am getting older I'm a bit more concerned about my feet. I figure I'll spend $50.00 on some comfortable supportive shoes to wear, rather than going down to the Payless and saving $25.oo only to find my big toe going numb, and my back aching.

I tried these on once, and they are the most comfortable shoes I have ever put on my feet. Light, supportive, and flexible. And hey, I'm a sucker for Mary Janes. The only problem is that they only had them in this tangerine color. Well, I guess I have to sneak my flair into life somehow.

I also don't feel bad about getting these, because Sarge just ordered a pair of $70.00 socks. That's right. $70.00 SOCKS. What the heck do $70.00 socks look like? Yeah, I thought that they would be woven out of cashmere by albino virgins or something. Ok, so they're not exactly socks either. But still!!

BAH! Shopping rant!

Piko de G and I trekked out to the commissary this morning to restock our 'fridge with something more than frozen hamburgers, sliced tomatoes, and soda.

We got rock star parking right up front, and all was looking well. I should have known it would only go downhill from there.

Today was shopping cart derby day in the aisles. Just about everywhere we went carts were parked strategically sideways, or in the smack dab middle of the aisle.

In the spice section there were about 6 people in a group blocking half the lane, and their carts were along the other half. Basically causing what M. Sarge would refer to as a "Cluster F**K", making me say WTF? And they were all apparently together, and arguing the merits of garlic salt vs. garlic flakes! Move out of the damn aisle!!

As we were moving towards the dairy area there was a lady parked horizontally across the lane. As if she were turning around and getting ready to head back in the other direction, and then decided that that would be a totally AWESOME place to stop and have a 5 minute "chat" with her friend who was all the way down by the orange juice. NOT. SO. MUCH!!!!

Finally, getting in line to pay. UGH, please move your damn cart 2 inches closer to the checkout so I can get past, thankyouverymuch! This lady was with her two older teen looking children and was leaning on the back of her cart while the kids were unloading it onto the belt. There were three other registers open down past her, and we were trying to get past. She leaned, her kids unpacked, looked at me, unpacked more, she leaned more. I said excuse me about 4 times, Piko de G even said excuse me. She leaned some more. FINALLY, she gets out of the way, by backing up into my cart. "Oops I was trying to get out of the way, and ended up getting in the way. Tee-hee!" I just gave her my 1,000 mile stare and said "Uh-huh". Then Piko de G being 5 said really loudly "SHE DID GET IN THE WAY!!!" as we finally passed them. Nice.

Another question, when the heck did it become a good idea to allow a 6 year old to "drive" a full shopping cart? If they're going to *DRIVE* it into the back of my ankles, I'm going to have to *DRIVE* my foot up their.....

This is what I get for going at 10:30 instead of 8:30.

Oh Wal-Mart, why you gotta do me like that?

So after a not-so-quick stop at the post office this morning (1 clerk, one customer at the desk, I was 1st in line, 20 minute wait) I head on over to Wal-Mart for this item. Sarge has found that his addiction to Vicks inhalers has caused a resistance to it's effects, and I'm suffering from seasonal allergies for the first time in my life. So hey, why not shoot some saline up your nose?

But of course they don't have it.

So I wander around and eventually see these!

Those buttons!!! SO CUTE!! Cannot resist! Could I make some cuffs?
Fabric, $1.00 a yard!! AAAA!!! Maybe I'll make some of these cute tanktops. How about matchy-matchy, mother-daughter tanks for our trip to Hawaii? They would also be great as quilt bindings.

And there's already this stack of projects just waiting to be started.


Oh Wal-Mart, how I love you.

de Gallo Dielemma

Darn kindergarten all to heck!! It's really messing up our travel plans! We really have to plan ahead now, and can't just take off whenever we want for however long we want to.

Just kidding!! I love that Piko is starting school. LOVE IT!!

Anyhoo, that is not the dilemma we(I)are having.

Booster seats.

We are traveling to Hawaii late in the summer to visit my family, and of course we don't pack up our booster seat for the trip. We have to make sure that there is room in the baggage allotment for GOLF CLUBS!! Anyway, I'm having my mom buy us a booster seat for our use while we're there, and then they can keep it at their house for whenever we come and visit. We used to have our old car seat there, but I'm sure that Piko 1) will not fit in it anymore, and 2) it will be more than 5 years old when we get there.

So, I'm wondering, all you parents out there in Bloggerland. Should I go with a full back booster? Like this

Or do the no back booster like this?


I looked around on the net, and did not really find any info that would lead me to believe that one is any safer than the other. Piko by the way is 38lbs, and 41" tall.

My gut instinct is to go with the full back model, it just seems safer to me. But the no back one is about 1/2 the price. Not that price is an issue when it comes to safety for my Pwessous Wittle Purl. Just that if both are equal in safety, then why not save a couple of bucks, and then Sarge and I can get popcorn while we watch TRANSFORMERS!! IN THE THEATRE!! Gads, I love family babysitters.

Monday, is that you?!

The answer:

HELLS YES!!!

What happened today that made my head explode?

Well, it all started with a 12:25am power outage. Was I up? Yes I was. Did I then go to bed? Well, I tried. Damn smoke detector in my bedroom started beeping, and beeping. Dog de G, starts pacing, and whining, pacing, and whining. I get up, press the reset.........beep!............beep!........ No luck. Take out the battery..............it worked.......beep!........FRACK!!!
Fumble around for a replacement battery in the dark, I know we have some, Sarge bought 8 of them the other month! FINALLY find the battery, replace, golden silence. Yay, finally able to go to bed. I was so tired I wanted to throw up.

Wake up, cat's breakfast, pick up cat puke, dog out, breakfast for Piko, coffee, paper, computer, dog in, my breakfast, dog's breakfast.

Then downhill....
1. A suspicious TKO auction cancellation from an overseas bidder. What? If you wanted to know that your S&H was going to be $11.50 USD, you should have asked first!! Now I can't even do a second chance offer.

2. Trip to Target with Piko de Gallo starts off great! A few tears in the car because she "Really, really wanted to go to IKEA!!!!!". Whatever. Target, return crappy National Geographic RC snake. Find cool roaring mini T-rex flashlight/key chain for Piko. AND THEN!!!!! Piko, where's your hat? The hat that you begged me to make for you! The one you picked out the fabric for, the one you pestered me for all day yesterday, THE ONE I HAD TO MAKE OVER TWICE!!!! Mommy meltdown? Yeeeeah, that was me in the Forrestville Target freaking out over a lost hat. Ended on a good note though, someone turned it in to lost and found. (And that T-rex, yeah, she didn't get it because she showed me she is irresponsible with her belongings. That's right, right?)

3. We come home to, NO POWER. BAH! 45 minutes later, power back on.

4. 2:45. No internets. No tv. No phone!

5. Ironing Sarge's uniform, the iron decides that it's just going to barf all it's water out onto the clothes, instead of making steam. DAMN YOU!!! I JUST BOUGHT YOU 3 WEEKS AGO!!!

All I have to say is that the cable or power better not go out at 8:00 tonight! Mhz is teasing me again with promises of Footy!

It's all the little things that make me nutty.

I got a nice Borders gift card from my in laws for Christmas, and finally decided to spend some of it the other week while Piko de Gallo was at school. How I love going to the book store by myself!!

I love book stores, I don't necessarily love Borders as I used to work there about 7 years ago. I believe that I am suffering from Post Traumatic Store Employee Syndrome.

I cannot browse without putting things away. It chills my cold little heart a bit more to see that customers are still the lazy 'tock-holes they were 7 years ago. As I browse the magazines, I see stuff out of place, I put them back, I browse remainders (sale books), putting stuff back. Seriously how hard is it to pick up a book, look at it, decide you don't want it, and then put it back right where you found it. I browse genre fiction, find random paperbacks on the floor, put them back.

I flashback to the afternoon that I spent organizing the mini book spinner in my old store. When I was done, all of those stupid little books were organized by subject, with the multiples all together. A totally fruitless endeavor I should have known. After I finished, I was stationed at the information desk, and watched as a lady flipped through the books. Picking up a book, putting it back in a random place, picking up another, and putting it back randomly. I wanted to grab the spinner from her and yell "NO BOOKS FOR YOU!". Who the hell needs a mini book on rubber duckies anyway??

The kicker however came when I was in the crafts section looking at knitting books. When does it ever seem appropriate to just lay books across the tops of other books on the shelves? I would think that it would be better to just leave them on the floor. So I'm in the craft section, looking at the books, and shelving all of the ones that are lying across the tops of the stacks. I must have looked like a Crazy Customer (TM.) , because booksellers kept walking past me, giving me the weird look. I had to stop myself when I came across a copy of Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman IN THE CRAFTS SECTION!!!!! Seriously, I know you can read, you're in a fracking bookstore, so you must know your alphabets.

On a tangent. Finding a book about Mr. Darcy in the knitting/crafting section makes me think that the people (women most likely) buying craft/knitting books fall into the stereotypical female Jane Austen reader category. And yes, I include myself in that category I'm afraid, because what was my final purchase that day? Cross Stitch a Day calendar, Crochet a Day calendar (hey, they were clearanced at $4 each!), and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

Back on track. I know that the people putting crap away in random places of the store are exactly the same people who bitch and moan when the computer says the store has one copy of something, and it cannot be found in it's rightful place on the shelf. Ooooh, I used to hate those people!! It's been years, and I still hate those people.

Sarge says I have latent customer service issues.

I say that I should just stay home and order from Amazon.com.

Target and the truffles of Poo!

Piko de Gallo and I set off to Target the day after Christmas (Boxing Day to you Librarian!) to buy some cheap wrapping paper and spend some of the Grandma cash she got. Our neighborhood (emphasis on the "hood" part) Target is rarely crowded and we easily found parking and lots and lots of wrapping paper. However the toy department was almost competely wiped out!! Piko de Gallo was a little dissapointed, but she managed to find a Polly Pocket set that she had on her Christmas wishlist.

I on the other hand was delighted to find that select Choxie products were 50% off!!

Oh the joy! I picked out some lovely dark chocolate truffles.

Dark chocolate truffles!! YUM!! 50% off, I can get two boxes!

All is good and I get everything home, put everything away, and open the box.

HELLO!!!

A box full of delicious chocolate poo!

Needless to say I had to eat them all before they grossed me out too much.