Ew. Ew. EWWWWW!

That's what I said when I looked out the window today and saw Kitty dragging a half-eaten rabbit carcass across my lawn... I'll say it again: EW!Ewewewewewewewewew! I'm still reeling. I asked Derek if it was too gross to blog about and he was like, "No, go blog! Do you want me to pull it out of the trash so you can take a picture?" I said, "No, just that you said that is blog-worthy."

Can I just say I cannot believe that those little nerds actually caught the thing in the first place? (I refuse to consider the possibility they were eating roadkill.) I mean, those rabbits are fast. I don't want to ever envision those dogs in that scenario. And by the way: I definitely need to replace the batteries in their collars...

Check it out!

Check out my new blog! I've decided to start selling tapestries. In theory. Who knows if anyone will actually buy any. But, even so, my blog looks pretty cool and I get to show off something I have fun doing, whether or not anyone wants one. And hey, great gifts and decor for my own house, eh?

Tapestries by Design

Oh, and coming soon: pics and stories about Red Barn with which to regale you.

Oprah Really Dropped the Ball

Latest disturbing news to cross my computer screen:

On September 25, 2007 Oprah aired a show entitled "237 Reasons to have Sex" which featured "experts" who advocated casual sex with friends, pornography, and having affairs as ways to improve relationships and marriage.

For full text of the article and a chance to sign a petition, go to Lighted Candle.
For the actual details on Oprah's site, check out her archival record of 237 Reasons to Have Sex.

This just makes me sick. I have an idea! In order to improve relationships and intimacy in marriage, let's promote infidelity, one-night stands and media that objectifies women! Let's get as many people out there transmitting STDs not only to each other, but potentially creating an even bigger mess when it comes to paternity for new babies and passing on our sick STDs to our children. Since we don't have enough problems with addictions (food, TV, drugs, alcohol, video games, etc), let's promote porn to further that problem. Because if there's anyone out there who doesn't have an addiction, we need to find them and help them indulge their weakness. Instead of solidifying our relationships and families, let's fracture them further, because obviously having healthy, natural, monogamous relationships isn't making anyone happy and STDs and unplanned pregnancies bring so much joy. Yes, let's attack even monogamous marriages and suggest to couples' minds that aberrant sex habits are the way to solve their problems...

New Skill Acquisition: Oven Installation

Yes, that's right, folks, I'm your new handy-dandy oven installer! Who knew unplugging a horrible oven outlet thing (k, so I'm lacking on the terminology, but I have the method down!) would be so involved?!

First things first: why and where did we get a new oven?
1) Why: because our old oven is a lovely mustard color, which says to me, along with the film of oil covering the body of the oven and the worn look of everything else, that this oven was manufactured circa 1977. I have friends that were born that year. I myself would be about 6 years younger than that. I say '77 because that's when the house was built, and I don't think it's been replaced. Ever. Once it caught fire. Also, we want to replace our fridge (I'm positive the money we pay for the extra energy it's using could go to the payments for a new fridge) and were worried about having to spend a couple hundred to replace the oven, too. (Doesn't make sense? Keep reading.)

2) Where: our neighbors around the corner were having a garage sale. Circumstances surrounding the sale of the oven are these: Three months ago previous owner bought new appliances for house. New neighbors wanted stainless steel. Previous owner knew they weren't going to keep appliances and bought back new fridge (crap! We needed that!). New neighbors decided to try and sell oven at garage sale or in the paper, asking $75 at sale, $100 in paper. Mentioned we were poor med students, found out he was a resident. New neighbors say, "hey, we know what it's like being poor, we'll give it to you for $50!"
Bottom line: 3 month old, barely used oven for $50! Woohoo!

So we get a new oven. Derek goes over there tonight and borrows their dolly, walking it around the corner. I help him lift it into the house (I nearly died in an oven-crushing accident) and into the kitchen. He told me that he would finish the heavy lifting if I'd take care of the plug. Neither of us knew how involved that would be. Brief synopsis: remove panel, unscrew three bolts to remove three wires, remove whole plug, reinsert on other oven, screw bolts back in, replace panels. Can I just mention that it probably literally took me 45 minutes just to do the screwing and unscrewing? Those things were rusted good. Derek pushed it back to the wall (well, halfway. He got bored halfway through and said I could finish it once I put the panel back on. What a darling.) Then he and I removed the horrible old oven from the kitchen to the garage and I've been looking up places that will pick it up to recycle! Anyway, the thing is gorgeous compared to our old one. I hope we can find a decent deal on a fridge, since that's what we really need...
You may not be able to see it, but note that the guard on the bottom of the fridge has fallen off, exposing who-knows-what kind of disgusting, dangerous things for babies and puppies to find, play with and insert into little mouths...

My ********** Streak...

So I got pulled over tonight for ********. I'm afraid that if I actually say the word, my winning streak will be over. Yes, I've been pulled over multiple times for ********, yet somehow I always escape ticketless. My record is as clean as a whistle. I'm pretty sure that as time goes on, that's working in my favor. However, I'm getting careless.

The funny thing about tonight is that I pulled over before I got pulled over. Meaning I was pulling onto the shoulder to turn onto my street and the officer turned on his lights as he followed me around the corner. I think he thought I saw him and knew why I was in trouble, but the truth was, I was on auto-pilot. My mind was nowhere near the speedometer. Apparently, I was going 10 ***** over the *****limit. I had no idea. All I was thinking about was getting home to my procrastinated projects-- and more importantly, bed.

Lucky for me, he was a really nice guy and informed me before he ran my license and registration that he wasn't going to ticket me. I don't know what it is about me. Of course, I'm always really calm, and I'm always ready to submit if I know I'm in the wrong. Scared, because no one wants a ticket (especially when contemplating telling the husband, "Oh yeah, hon, I got the dog food. Oh, and by the way, igotaticket.... Night!") But really, I usually know I deserve it and I can accept the consequences. I mean, there's nothing I hate worse than an unjust ticket, which I'll fight tooth and nail (Derek got one of those when he was interviewing here in Missouri, ironically. I'm still t.o.'d about that. ---aside: I'm bringing t.o.'d back. I mean, really, why did that ever go out of style? End of aside.). But I'm also a huge fan of justice in general, even when the ruling goes against me. So I think that honestly might be working in my favor... Course, then again, I might just be crazy.

Hooray for justice and nice cops!

One of the Many Uses of the Kitchen Sink

And this is what we did this afternoon...

I gave Xandri some delicious Cafe Rio rice and black beans, which she loved and had ALL over her little body and highchair (which Kitty loves eating off of). When she finally finished, I took her out, stripped her down and stuck her in the sink while I cleaned up. Avril couldn't bear to be left out of the fun, so she stripped and I stuck her in, too. Then the puppies and I got to work.
Meaning I put Xandri's tray and all the dirty plates on the floor and saved rinsing time and water. That's right, if there's nothing else these puppies are good for, they're great at consuming all the food we don't eat, spill or smear anywhere and everywhere. And if any of us have food left on our faces, well with a big, sloppy puppy kiss, that's no longer a problem!

Anyway, keep reading! I've done about a billion updates today and doctored up the dates so that it looks like I post more frequently, so I don't want you to miss out on all the fun! And I love getting comments, so by all means, tell me what you think!

Save Big On Batteries Jill? I wish...

So Jill posted this video about how you could save a bunch on batteries by taking apart a 6V lantern battery. Naturally, I went out and bought one and had Derek pry it open for me. Maybe I bought the wrong brand or something, but we definitely didn't find 32 AA batteries inside. We did have fun slamming it into the pavement on the driveway and finding out what is inside four giant something batteries, though. And we felt pretty cool, like we were the guys on MythBusters or something.