May 22, 2009

  • A Good Day At Brat Farm

    We woke up early, thanks to the damn dog. He had been kenneled the night before and around 6:45am, he starts barking to get out. Now the Beast thinks the dog needs to go out so he drags his butt out of bed to open the door of the kennel and heads towards the kitchen back door to let him into the yard. When he opened the kennel, I told him *He doesn't want to go out. He wants to come onto the bed.* He ignores me, as usual and it takes him all the way to the back door before he realizes the dog hasn't followed him. The dog is standing in the doorway of our bedroom, looking at the Beast but not budging. When the Beast tells him to *come*, the dog backs up and jumps on the bed.

    When the Beast came in to drag him off the bed and MAKE him go out, I laughed and told him the dog sure knew how to manipulate HIM. I told him that, if he thought about it, when the dog needs to go outside, he whines, not barks. It won't make a difference, though. If it happens again, the Beast will still react the same way. MEN!!!

    So we were up early and I decided I was going to make a roast chicken for dinner. I pulled the chicken out of the freezer and put it in the sink in some warm water to defrost for a while. I figured if that didn't do it, I could use the defrost feature on my microwave. It's a bit of a pain with its *turn the meat over*. With a chicken, it means several times during the process, it has to be *turned over*.

    I did get the ingredients ready for the stuffing, peeled the potatoes and got them into water until I needed to start them cooking later in the day. I wanted to get everything ready while I felt good and had the energy. At one point, the Beast came into my computer room wanting the checkbook. When I asked him why, he said he was going to run down and pay the insurance on the Guntersville house. I was truly puzzled and told him that I had already mailed that in just yesterday. He swore he had never seen the bill and he was sitting at the table with me when I wrote it out. He had told me to hold onto it until after the 16th and then he would either drop it off or I could mail it.

    I just decided mailing it was easier since he hasn't really been feeling all that well. It's cheaper to mail it than for him to drive there. He absolutely insisted that he had never seen the bill. I dug out the papers for it and the envelope it came in and showed it to him and said...*NOW do you remember seeing this?* He looked at it, snorted and gave it back to me. I think he was thinking it would be in a business envelope but insurance papers don't come in those. At least, not OUR insurance company. It's a nice 8x11 envelope because it has all the policy info, the endorsement page and any changes that you need to know about included. Luckily, I saved the envelope it was in for some reason because I KNEW it would ring a bell with him when he saw it even if he never admitted it. MEN.

    Dinner was wonderful and there's plenty left over for a couple meals yet. The dog was drooling over the chicken but this is one he ISN'T getting any part of. Darn dog gets lots of chicken. Good thing he likes it so much.

    The Beast caulked all around the trim at the top of the walls and says he's going to paint it so it won't *turn* on us down the line. It needed to be done because of the popcorn ceilings we have here. The trim wasn't flat against the ceiling. Funny but I didn't notice how much of a gap there actually was until he had part of it done and not the other. It really DOES look better. He underestimated how much caulk he would need, however, so it means another trip tomorrow to Lowe's to pick some more up. I really hate these ceilings with that rough texture. I loved the ones we had in Florida. So much nicer to have smooth ceilings. They also don't need as much paint nor do they make as much of a mess due to the type of roller you have to use with them.

    We got a cherry off the Bing cherry tree today. It's very young so we really didn't expect anything from it for at least another year. However, between the high winds, the violent downpours of the past few weeks and the birds, only one was left. It was wonderful. We shared the one left on the tree. Goofy, I know, but it was such a treat to us to know it came off OUR tree. I had no idea they actually could be ready so soon after blooming. I guess I'm just so used to oranges and peaches taking a couple months to be ready. But, these are much smaller so I guess that's the difference.

    Tomorrow we must thin down the plum tree. It's been roughed up by the winds and rain but it's still loaded with fruit. I don't think it can take another summer of being overloaded. We will end up with more than one broken branch and probably kill the poor thing. As it is, I DID tell you it looks more like a small weeping willow than a plum, didn't I?

    The Beast also has to look and see if he can find the copper sulfate or whatever it is that we need to use to treat the peach curl on our trees. We don't have to do anything right now but will have to treat it this fall and again in the spring before the blossoms open. We had it in California with our peach tree one year but I treated it (the Beast at that time was NOT interested in trees). It doesn't affect the fruit, just the leaves which usually fall off. I did find, however, that the fruit didn't seem to get as big as it would otherwise. So far we have no peach curl on the Alberta peach tree nor two others but I'm sure it spreads either by insects, birds or even the wind. I forget what I used to know about it and, since the trees are the Beast's domain these days, I really don't care. Inside the house is MINE; outside the house is HIS domain. HE bought all the trees, let HIM look up the problems and how to take care of them.

    Other than that, it was a rather nice day around here. Not too hot, not too cold....just right! There was a nice breeze and the day was mostly peaceful. I still have to wrap up and put away the leftover chicken and find a container for the gravy that won't be overkill. I found out that some of my nice containers I had were missing because the Beast was just throwing them out instead of cleaning them out. I know! I told him, *What the hell were you thinking?* and his reply was that I had a shitload of containers so he was just thinning them down a bit. When I said to him, *Did you ever consider that it is the SIZE that makes those useful to me? That's why I used them so often?* They also happened to be the only ones that I have an actual spin holder for and now I am down to almost nothing because MR USELESS thinks he can just take over stuff he has no clue about. I told him he was as bad as my sister who started redoing my cabinets in a way that made sense to HER. There are still things I haven't found out where she put them.

    Well, time for bed for this gal. Love you all. I wish you good health, wonderful weather, the company of family and friends this weekend and lots of love. Remember to smile at everyone. Make them wonder what you meant by that? Help prevent wrinkles by smiling often. It really works and it feels good, too. Try it! You'll like it.