Guilty Pleasures and Pet Peeves

I have a few guilty pleasures. I'm not proud of them, but I'll share them with you nonetheless, in hopes of getting you to open up and tell me yours. :D
One guilty pleasure John and I have together (this is absolutely not sexually related in any way, so keep reading) is watching Project Runway. I think we have watched almost every season, now. And, thank God for DVR's, because we never miss a show! I am completely sewing inept, yet, when I watch the show I think "Ooooh... I could do that!". I couldn't. If there is one thing on this earth that frustrates me, it's sewing. I am not good at it, I don't understand it, I don't have the patience for it, and it's exceedingly tedious. I literally become a drooling neanderthal when confronted with a pattern.
Another guilty pleasure: smelling my kids' blankies. I absolutely love the smell of dried up drool and "sleep" that lingers on the blankets. Another smell that I absolutely love (it's my favorite smell in the world) is the scent of budding poplar trees. They ooze this tacky sap, and I LOVE the smell of it. My best friend Choochie says it smells like wet dog. Most other people say it's a disgusting smell. But, it is my absolute favorite smell EVER. Don't knock it until you try it.
Another personal guilty pleasure is watching the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency. And Ghost Hunters. And reading about true crime. I've got a lot of guilty pleasures, apparently.
Pet peeves: Chewing with your mouth open!!! I would have to list that as my all time #1 pet peeve ever ever ever. Ever. Another huge pet peeve of mine is people who are completely unaware of people/things around them. For example, going to a store... those people who park their buggies at odd angles in the aisle and don't even notice that other people are trying to get around them. Or people who walk like snails, but don't stand to one side so other people can get past. Just general "consideration". I mean, seriously. Is it really that hard to notice that there are other people in the world other than yourself?
Slow talkers..... people that embellish or pause or give you all of the unnecessary information without getting to the point. If I wanted to listen to droll for an hour, I would watch President Bush give a speech. (I love John), but he would have to be the champion at not-getting-to-the-point talking. That man can jump from a subject to a completely whackadoo-off-the-wall idea without blinking. The telephone. I hate it. If I'm on the phone with someone, I want the necessary information to be shared and then I want to say goodbye and hang up. I'm not one for chit chat and uncomfortable silences. I don't do well with those things. The main reason I avoid the phone is for that reason only. Because I don't want to offend people by not spending time making small talk. Exchange the information necessary and hang up. The end. GG is a PRO at that. That woman can keep a phone call under 30 seconds without blinking. I LOVE IT.

There are a million more pet peeves, I'm sure, but I'm not putting the effort into coming up with them right now.

Your turn. Guilty pleasures and pet peeves..... GO.

Carpeting is stupid.

Let me begin by giving Cheryl a HUGE round of applause. I am very glad to know that guilt works on you so well, Cheryl! I will be certain to use it more in the future with you! :P

Now, to the carpeting.
Our new house has "frame" hardwood floors, which means, there is beautiful hardwood all the way around the outer edge of the room, then a bigass piece of unfinished flooring in the center, which typically, one would put an area rug over. Area rugs are a flipping joke. To begin with, the dining room and living room areas that need to be covered are some whackadoo size.... like... 9'3"x 10'8". 8x10 rugs are not big enough, 9x12 are too big one way, and not big enough the other.... it's totally screwball. Aside from that fact, when we DO find area rugs that we like, they cost between $600-$2000!!!!! If I'm correct, there are places you can go to get your entire house carpeted for $600! So, my thought was this: get regular carpeting, just have it put down in the "areas".... not wall to wall. Those hardwood floors are part of the character of the house. I am not covering those suckers up! Well, I called (sing it with me...) "800-588-2300.... Empire!" to get my free in home estimate, and somehow, I got the one salesman who has no clue what I'm talking about and thinks that what I want would be impossible to do. So, my free in home estimate was free and in home, but has yet to be estimated, until he gets further information. He seems to think that what we would need to do is bring the carpet to the house, measure it to the floor, take it back, get the edges bound, then come back and we could use it as an area rug. Ok... that's not what I wanted. And, when I said that I wanted only the center part of the stairs done, he said the same would have to be done.... bring it, measure it, cut it, take it back, bind the edges, then bring it back and lay it. : COME THE FLIP ON! I said "so... if I can't have folded under edges that are tacked down?" and he says he doesn't think so. He took one helluva lot of measurements, and John and I found the perfect carpet (which we were informed was one of the most expensive ones he had.... there's a shocker)..... so, dude is scheduled to come back in two days and have all the answers for us. I'm having a feeling that we'll be doing more shopping around for carpeting and skipping our business with Empire.

Next topic: I love Dancing with the Stars. And, could I be more excited that the new fall season starts this week?? No... I couldn't. Cloris Leachman made me laugh out loud last night. They had to silent bleep her three times on live television because of her filthy mouth. That woman is 82 and kicking ass. I absolutely love her. I even loved her when she was on Facts of Life.
Kim Kardashian's ass amazes me. Let me link you to a pic so you can understand. She's cute. She's got a nice body... but, then there's that ass!!!! That is some crazy stuff there. Bottom line is, I love Dancing with the Stars. Not as much as I love So You Think You Can Dance, but still.

Bedtime for the kiddies! More tomorrow!

You All Suck Big

I don't know if insulting people is the way to go about getting a positive result, but I just wanted to go on record to say you all fail miserably at being "interactive".

in·ter·ac·tive
/ˌɪntərˈæktɪv/ -adjective
1.acting one upon or with the other.
2.of or pertaining to a two-way system of electronic communications, as by means of television or computer: interactive communications between families using two-way cable television.
3.(of a computer program or system) interacting with a human user, often in a conversational way, to obtain data or commands and to give immediate results or updated information


I'm sure I'll have more to say tomorrow, but for now, I just wanted to let everyone know that they have jobs to do. CHIP CHOP CHIP!

Eight Loads of Laundry

YAY!!! Electricity is back at the Tatta house! For those of you who prayed that I would not get food poisoning from the sausage pizza, I thank you. Your prayers worked. ( I know that none of you actually took the time to pray for that, but whatever)

So, the aftermath is this: laundry piled to the ceiling and mold growing in the dishwasher. GROSS. Eight loads of laundry. Technically, that may not sound like that much, but when you are actually having to do it, it's an albatross. I would soooooo love a first floor laundry room right now!

I've decided to start making my blog slightly interactive. At the end of each thread, I will pose a question related to the topic. I would greatly appreciate getting your responses if you are so inclined to do so!

Today, the topic is laundry. The question is this: Do you love or hate doing laundry? And, what part of laundry do you hate/love the most?
Obviously, I hate doing laundry. Mainly because it's downstairs and I can't do it as efficiently as I would like. However, easily the worst part of doing laundry is putting it all back in the drawers after it's washed. Man, I hate that. I HATE it. I have to spread everything out on my bed to divvy it into piles for each member of the family, then proceed to put it all away in different rooms, drawers, closets, etc. I always procrastinate, and then the laundry piles up again before I've put away the last batch.
So, there you go.
Do you hate separating? Folding? Switching from washer to dryer? Having to lay certain items out to air dry? Putting away? Everything about laundry?
Spill.

Electricity is cheap.

Since 6pm Sunday evening, the Tatta household has been without electricity. Zero power. And, in the Tatta household, zero power mean zero running water. Zero running water means zero baths/showers or toilet flushing. Oh, and just for the record, I'm eating leftover cold pizza right now that has sausage on it.... this pizza was not refrigerated overnight, so lets all take a moment to pray that Amy doesn't get diarrhea from said pizza.... at least not until the toilets are flushable again.
The generator is currently running to keep the meat in the chest freezer downstairs from spoiling. But, it's been three days for me without a computer, so I rigged this sucker up to the generator to save a bit of my sanity. If it weren't for my cell phone (especially its ability to be charged in the car!), I would be completely over the edge at this point. The highlight of today has been that the school got its power back, so the two older boys are at least in school all day! YAY! This pizza is quite good on day 2, I must say.
Here is a small list of things that you can not do without electricity:
laundry (and, jeez 0' crips, it is PILING up)
vacuum (four kids do not leave a carpet clean for long)
wash your hands under running water
flush the toilet (I would say this is the most severe of all of the issues)
bathe (we've been mooching shower time off of friends and relatives)
watch tv (this has actually not been that big a deal)
play the Wii (Spencer may go into a coma if he can't play Guitar Hero soon)
cook
refrigerate
wash dishes (and wouldn't it be the case that we had sauerkraut and kielbasa on Sunday, and didn't ge tthe dishes washed before the power went out! That shit STINKS!)
computer/internet (though, when you're desperate, I suppose you find a way!:D)
fix your hair (well... some people may be able to look good without a blowdryer, but I'm not one of them)
use cordless phones
charge cell phones outside of a running car
heat the house
cool the house

So, I'm sure all of you "glass half full" type people out there are saying "Yes, but look at all of the GOOD things that are coming out of it!" I'm not a pilgrim. If it had been left to me, we would not have discovered anything past Jamestown. Do you want me to list the good things that come to mind out of this? Here you go:

I broke it down, and it seems that we pay approx. $8 a day for electricity in this house. So now, when I get the bill every month, I won't go "Jeez o' cripes, I can't believe how freakin' much electricity is!!!!" Instead, I will say "I love you, Ohio Edison, and everything that you provide me. Here is your money.... I will gladly pay my bill and worship the ground you walk on"

At least I have a home to live in and none of my belongings were destroyed by water to boot.

I don't have to sleep outisde with animals and bugs.

I am eternally grateful for the peace and quiet the school hours provide me.

Thank the Lord for friends and family that have allowed us to invade their homes in the name of personal hygiene.

This has forced me to defrost my fridge and freezer.

I can still dust and sweep with a broom.

I'm certain there are plenty more positives that can be found in this situation, but until I hear that "whirrrrrrr" and the beeping of appliances kicking on, I'll be slightly more focused on how this is taking me out of my comfort zone. :D

So, that's the word of the day around here! I miss my morning cup of coffee.

If anyone has any interest in browsing through some photos of the new house and the kids, here's a link to my Snapfish albums

Home Depot Makes Me Want to Slit My Wrists*

If you plan on going to Home Depot (I'm not even going to get started on Lowe's), and you plan on actually purchasing anything that is more difficult to find than a hammer, I advise you to put aside at least three hours of your day to do so. I'm not going to get into details about what our nightmare experience has been with Home Depot and ordering shit for our bathroom, but there was a point in the whole dealings that John actually said "If she doesn't get things straightened out, I'm going to kick her in the snatch". The "she" he was talking about was a lovely woman who did all of our special ordering for us, which included the bathtub, the vanity base (which cost an extra $100 for delivery, even though it was only getting delivered to the store, and not to our actual home! ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS! Am I insane, or do you not sell this item?? If you sell this item, why am I paying for it to be delivered to YOUR STORE?? whatever) faucets, light fixtures, and a few other things. Well, the day after we had spent three hours with the lovely woman while she figured out how the computer system worked for special orders, she called us to let us know that the order hadn't gone through, and that we would have to return with our receipt for things to get straightened out. I'm not going to get into the profanities that went back and forth between John and I about incompetence and not making the drive back to the store for their mistake and how, if we had paid for these items, how did they not actually get ordered, etc. This whole bathroom remodel is one continuous nightmare. A very expensive, time consuming, move delaying nightmare. The only good thing about this bathroom is that a brilliant craftsman is installing it. (props to BuilderDan). He's saving us an assload of money, and he is the best of the best at his craft. Now I lost my train of thought. Poop.
Oh... I was talking about the lovely woman. Four days after finally getting the whole ordering situation resolved, we get a letter in the mail, and it's a brochure/invitation to join her church (of which her son is head pastor). Now, call me crazy (again), but is that not solicitation through the theft of our address? SHE WANTED US TO JOIN HER CHURCH. SHE GOT OUR ADDRESS THROUGH THE HOME DEPOT SPECIAL ORDER WE PLACED. I mean, granted... John and I are heathens. I can't deny that. I'm certain that we put out "we need churchin' " vibes pretty strongly. But, seriously. SERIOUSLY. We're not heathenish enough to report her and risk getting her reprimanded or possibly fired from her job, granted. Like I said... she was a "lovely woman". I mean... anyone that cares that much about my soul's salvation can't be all bad, right?

I can't concentrate anymore. The USC/Ohio State game is on.





*(I'm generalizing my opinion of Home Depot based solely on the employees which we came in contact with, and I realize that there are many very competent Home Depot employees who do their jobs professionally and with great knowledge, I just have yet to interact with one)

Grocery Shopping

It's funny how my feelings have changed so intensely toward the chore of grocery shopping. Eleven years ago, when John and I lived in Wisconsin for that brief period, I used to LOVE going grocery shopping. It was like a date night for John and I (we really lived it up back then), and for some reason, we just had a great time with it. There were two grocery stores near where we lived. The Piggly Wiggly (for those of you who remember your history lessons, the Piggly Wiggly was the very first commercial grocery store ever.... it originated in the South) was a two or three block walk away from our apartment, and we used it for emergencies. But, the BIG outing was to Pick & Save. Let me tell you... their generic brand, Roundy's, was EXCELLENT. Thank the lord we didn't have many guests over during that year in WI, because we ate one helluva lot of generic food. The best time to go grocery shopping was during a Green Bay Packers game. The entire state of Wisconsin becomes desolate during a GBP game. They are hardcore up there. So, we had full run of the grocery store during the football games. Don't ask me why, but I remember laughing a lot and hard during our grocery trips. I don't know at what point in the eleven years since that something went horribly wrong...
The situation now is this: I hate driving to the grocery store, taking the goods off the shelf, putting the goods in my buggy, taking the goods out of my buggy to pay for them, putting the goods back in my buggy to take to my car, taking the goods out of my buggy to put in my car, driving home, taking the goods out of my car and into the house, and then taking the goods out of the bags to put them away. It's one helluva lot of shifting goods from one position to another. It very much reminds me of this, but on a different topic:
Essentially, I don't want to load anything, unload anything, or have to pay to load and unload anything. I don't want to load anything unloadable or payable, I don't want to unload anything loaded or paid for, and I don't want to pay for anything loaded, unloaded, or payable. However, neither do I want to kickbox or spend as much time with your daughter as I can.

Ed

So, Ed has taken up guitar playing. If it didn't take an age and a half to download a video to here, I would post one. I'll try doing so later. He's mastered the beginning of Welcome to the Jungle.

Also, we've allowed Ed to get his hair cut in a pseudo-Mohawk. I want everyone to know this so they're not shocked when they next see him. He has been having a lot of issues with anxiety and having difficulty at school with kids bullying him and such, and, as silly as it may seem, the new haircut has given him a real boost in confidence. I realize what other parents probably think when they see my kid with this haircut now, but what matters is that it is making Ed feel better about himself. He's still a good kid. If he weren't, he wouldn't have gotten the privilege of the haircut.

The First Post

As of this post, I am no longer a blog-virgin.
A friend of mine told me that I should start a blog, and, considering that I had all the laundry done today, I thought I would try that out.

So..... a blog. Yep. ....

I wonder how long I can stare at this page with a blank mind? I bet I could do it for quite a while.

I need to come up with some topics of discussion, I suppose. (I see at the bottom of this screen, it has some sample option of "Labels for this post:" They include "scooters, vacation, fall". Well, I don't have any scooters, to my knowledge. Vacation.... I imagine I can breach that subject at some point. Fall.... it would be much more interesting to write a nice anecdote about an actual fall, and not the season Fall. But, I haven't fallen for a while, so I would be lying if I gave you a good story about that.

I realize that people are dying to know what goes on in the life of a housewife. Well, let me tell you... it's a rollercoaster ride of pure excitement DAY AND NIGHT! So, be prepared for strong language, violence, and some sexual content when reading these blogs. They are not for the faint of heart.
But, before we get to the good stuff, I'm going to have to end this post, as there is a child who is digging in the fridge for a slice of cheese when he CLEARLY did not finish the piece of peanut butter toast that I made him ten minutes ago. He will not get away with THAT one! Parenting, ahoy!!!