Tuesday, May 22, 2012

A talent nobody really wants

Girl: Mom! Mom! I am SOOOOO talented!

Me: Oh yeah? Why is that?

Girl: I just peed like a boy!

Me: What?

Girl: I just peed like a boy! I put the toilet seat up and walked up to it and leaned like this [she demonstrates] and I peed standing up!

Me: Wow. You probably shouldn't try that again.



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Sunday, May 20, 2012

I really need to put a hamper in the bathroom

Recently, The Girl went streaking through the house, naked, to put her clothes in the laundry room before her bath. As she ran by, The Boy said, "Heh heh heh. I see your balls."

Me: What?

Boy: I see her balls.

Me: What do you think "balls" are?

Boy: Uh... Her butt cheeks?

Me: No. Balls are testicles. They are part of a boy's privates. She doesn't have any balls.

Boy: Oh.

Girl: HA! Balls, balls, balls! He has BALLS!

Me: Please don't repeat that at preschool.


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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Honey, I shrunk my notepad!


I had hoped to steal borrow a hotel notepad to use while interviewing people at a dog event I'm covering. No, the pen in that photo is not super-sized. I included it for scale so that you can see what I'm working with here.  It's a post-it note sans the sticky. 

Expect really, really short interviews from this show.


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Monday, April 30, 2012

Ever the optimist

I found out today that I had already paid for two things I thought I still needed to pay for. I choose to look at this as really good news rather than as evidence of poor record keeping and memory loss. I'm a glass-half-full kind of gal.

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Sunday, April 29, 2012

That's OK, you don't know what I'm making about you....

Not long ago, I posted a fantastic spam message that came to a business account for a company. Yesterday, I got a great direct message to the same business's twitter account. This came from a hacked user, and it went like this:


Hi this user is making terrible things about you... [link removed]
Direct message sent by XXXXXX to you 

This message brings up a lot of questions. I can't imagine what kind of terrible things someone might be making that have something to do with me. A statue of my likeness that breathes fire? A computer virus named after me? An unauthorized biography full of scandalous stories (obviously made up because, as you know, I am awesome)? What else could it be?

Also, I'm really torn up about the lack of reasonable grammar in this DM. Honestly, if you are going to go to all the trouble to hack and spam, have a good editor look over your message first. 

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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The one where I eat some crow

So in my last post, I may have cast aspersions on my local Walgreen's based Red Box. (Quick, define "cast aspersions" without looking it up. Yeah, I thought so. Me too.) I may have accidentally suggested that the odd-looking DVD we rented of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo might possibly have been a copy rather than the original. You might have even gotten the impression that I was implying that something funky was going on. I assure you that was not my intention. Ahem.

For whatever reason, I decided to tweet Red Box, showing them my photo of the DVD and asking them what the heck was up with it. I considered linking to the original blog entry to show them what I was talking about, but then I (wisely, it turns out) decided to just attach the photo.

This is the tweet I got back:


 That's how the disc was designed by the movie studio because Lissbeth (the main character) plays a computer hacker.


Whoops.

Never in the history of ever would I have thought that that's how the disc came from the manufacturer. Honestly, I blame you people for my glaring error. Didn't at least one of you guys rent or buy that movie? Surely one of you read this and knew I was completely off-base and could have told me before I went and got all tweety over it. Sheesh.

OK, maybe it's a tiny bit my fault for jumping to conclusions. MAYBE. 

So, anyway. Yay, Redbox! You rock at providing awesome, not-bootlegged DVDs at low, low prices.

Please don't sue me.


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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Red Box rip off?

We don't rent a lot of movies, but Husband read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and wanted to see how the movie was. So he went to Red Box in my local Walgreen's (which is currently out of cherry Zotz because I bought them all) and rented it. This is how it looked:

Yes, that's a DVD with the movie title written on it with a sharpie. These leads me to some questions about how exactly Red Box gets the movies that they provide for the obscenely low price of $1. Does Billy Joe sit in his seedy, McDonald's-wrapper-filled living room and make copy after copy from a movie his boss bought for full price? If so, they're making out like bandits with that one dollar rental fee. Does every Red Box movie look like this or did someone perhaps return a bootlegged copy to the machine while keeping the original?

It was a fine copy of the movie but it didn't come with any extras or anything. Suspicious....

IMPORTANT: READ THIS FOLLOW UP TO THIS POST.

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Thursday, April 19, 2012

In competition for the best spam message ever

I just opened this spam email, which came to a business address, no less. I think it's made of awesome (but, of course, I'm not clicking the link):


Do you want to have sex for a long time, and be the best in bed sama? 


This web portal will help you to be skipped, it will make of thee a porn star 


I m in this store has to order a year-round pills and do not feel trouble, the fastest delivery of all very reliable. - 


[link removed, just in case you have an accidental spasm in your clicking finger--LATR]


Watson Coffee


I need to google "bed sama" for sure because I need to know if I even WANT to be the best at it. Plus, do I want to be "skipped?" And I really like the use of "thee" because who doesn't want a little Shakespeare in their bed sama? Mr. Watson Coffee, you really have this pitch-thing down. Rock on.


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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Listen at your own risk

Today I bought this song. I'm a little embarrassed about it, but I figured that I needed to reimburse the artist for all the airplay it's getting inside my head.

You're welcome. 

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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Hopefully it'll look good when it matters

On Friday night, my family will be going to get a picture taken of all four of us. It's for our church directory, and it will also provide us with photos to hand out to various relatives who want to save this moment in our lives forever.

I would rather shove forks in my eyeballs and eat a fire sandwich than go have a family photo taken. I know that in 20 years we'll be glad to have it blah, blah, blah, but I will still dread every minute up to the appointment. I absolutely hate the idea of trying to make everything perfect for a photo.

When I called to make our appointment, I was picturing late April, with plenty of time for me to forget about the impending experience before it arrived. But there was only one appointment available that meshed with my husband's work schedule, and that's now. There is no time for denial.

Conveniently, we've all had haircuts recently. I found clean clothes that coordinate well enough so that we won't look like our photo accidentally happened to four people who just coincidentally wound up in the same place and time as a photographer. But there's the issue of my hair color.

Last week, I dyed my hair with a new dye. This in and of itself is no surprise. I buy whatever's fairly cheap in the right color. I can't remember what kind I use each time. But previously, I used dark brown (instead of my normal medium brown) and liked that because swimming so much makes my color fade pretty quickly. And since my main interest in dying my hair is to have any color that isn't gray, my system has mostly worked for me.

This time, however, I got this foaming color stuff. It's supposed to be easy to apply and less messy than traditional hair dyes, or so I have heard. It turns out, what I've heard is all lies. That shit got EVERYWHERE. And, like any good hair dye, it was invisible until it developed, so when I got out of the shower I got to play a fun game of "find all the stuff you ruined with brown dye." And then I followed that with a round of "scrub the crap out of that to try to save it."

Meanwhile, said dye colored my hair, scalp, forehead, and shoulders in a most thorough and annoying fashion. I've never had my scalp stained for a week before. What a treat!

And then, to add insult to injury, when my hair was dry I discovered that large sections of the underneath part DID NOT GET DYED AT ALL. This has never happened to me while using non-foaming hair color. So I had to go out and buy a root coloring kit, which I convinced Husband to help me apply (he kept saying, "I don't know how to do this," and I kept saying, "Do you see gray hair? THEN PUT DYE ON IT!"). Maybe if I keep making huge messes and employing Husband to help me fix mistakes, someone will give me a year's worth of hair coloring sessions at a salon.

Yeah, that's probably not going to happen.

So tonight, after a long day, I was sitting at the table and I asked Husband if he thought my hair would look OK for the picture. Both he and The Girl looked at my head and said, "Well, not right now." I gave them a blank look until I realized that chunks of hair were sticking out of my ponytail much like I had stuck my finger in a socket. The Girl followed it up with, "Yeah, it's a little messy."

I'm pretty sure I said, "I meant the color," and silently added, "you morons." At least, I THINK it was silently.

"Oh yeah, the color is fine," they agreed.

Whatever. Maybe I'll wear a hat.

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UPDATE: We survived! And the Boy, who has some bizarre vomiting virus, was cheerful, well-behaved, and non-barfy the whole time. The Girl was also well-behaved and kept all bodily fluids to herself. Next time I get my picture taken, though, I'm not wearing a white shirt. I look like a boat. But my hair looks awesome, so there's that.

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At least I made the sloth happy

I stumble onto a lot of funny things on the internet (thank you, Facebook). But this is the perfect combination of witty and adorable, and you just can't get that at the corner store*.

So check out 33 Animals Who are Extremely Disappointed in You and enjoy the stylings of someone much funnier than me. And tell me which animal is your favorite!

*Is that a saying or did I just make that up? 



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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Hey, I'm not MADE of money

On Saturday, the kids and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few necessities for Easter. The Boy, who is 8, and The Girl, who is 5, reminded me that we needed to buy flowers for them to take to church to place on the cross. Every year, all the children who attend Sunday school bring different kinds of flowers and put them on the cross that is displayed outside of the church. It turns out to be a beautiful, wonderful smelling creation. It's really awesome.

So we went over to the fresh flowers section and the kids bantered about which bouquet to buy. We decided on one with a variety of colors of flowers so that each of them could choose their favorite. Except the bouquet cost $8 for a bunch of cheap, dyed flowers.

Me: Man, I'm going to have to pay $8 for you guys to each take ONE flower to church. Man.

Then I looked and saw some carnations.

Me: Hey, here are some carnations. They are only $4, and they are red. Everybody likes red.


Girl: Red's not really my favorite color any more.


Me: Yeah, well, it's a good color. Plus, these are only $4. We're getting these.


Boy: Really Mom? You're going with cheap for Easter? Really?


Me: 


Me: Yes, I am. And you don't need to be telling everybody.

They looked FINE on the cross. Still, I'm hoping Jesus doesn't ask for my receipt.
For what it's worth, there are FOUR of our carnations on this cross. Three of them are clumped together. Can you find them?

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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

I'm sure it's her BEAUTY that's the problem


This woman laments all the wrongs done to her in life because of her amazing beauty.  Draw your own conclusions.


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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

This was just the first thing that went wrong today


"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
IC sucks!"

That was my urine cup commentary for the day. My Interstitial Cystitis (IC) had been flaring up over the last week so I went in to get in instillation today. Prior to every instillation, I have to give a urine sample, which the nurse tests to make sure the I don't have an infection (you can't have an instillation when you have an infection). That's the fun of having a disease that mimics the symptoms of a urinary tract infection (among other things): you never know when you have an actual UTI. 

Although I've rarely failed tests in my life, today I certainly did. The good news is that, when you fail a urine test, you get antibiotics instead of an "F". Now I get to go back next week and try again. Isn't that special?

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Monday, April 2, 2012

Guaranteed to freak your kids out on Easter morning


@Karendipitee shared this photo of her Picasso bunny with me so that he can live on in infamy even after being consumed*. Isn't that what we all want for our lives? Anyway, I think this guy had a part-time job as a flounder. Or maybe some dude in the chocolate factory eye applying section was on crack. But I prefer to think that Mr. Bunny had an alter ego as a bottom dwelling fish. Because that makes more sense, right?

Here's hoping this bunny was one of a kind, otherwise some kid will probably be scarred for life on Easter morning. 

*I'm told that he was delicious.

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Monday, March 26, 2012

This post goes a lot of places

My local grocery store had a variety of these "sleepy-eyed" Easter-themed stuffed animals for sale. I think they somehow missed out on the "cute, cuddly" aspect and instead they created a line of stuffed animals that all look high.
Hey kid! Know where I could score some weed?

I regret not taking pictures of the whole Easter High Clan, because the pink duck and yellow chick were really pretty awesome as well. I was surprised to return to the store just a few days later to find all of them gone. I'm thinking this means that 1) someone complained, 2) the store manager realized that these crappily made toys were just too ridiculous to sell next to the spices, or 3) a truckload of people ACTUALLY BOUGHT THEM. Maybe junkies? I just do not know.

If you are out Easter shopping, or shopping for anything other than food, I suggest you NOT stop at the grocery store and instead try stores known for sales of, well, non-food items. If you shop and Kmart, you can get some good coupons and great deals if you look here. We no longer have a Kmart in my immediate area but I just realized that you can actually shop online there (why does this surprise me?). Anyway, I can't say I have a problem with $3 pairs of shoes, so I am all for a trip to Kmart, virtually or otherwise. 

Unfortunately, I know that I will never fit my weird-shaped feet into shoes that I can buy without trying on, so internet shoe shopping is out for me. I have got to try on roughly 478 pairs of shoes before I find a pair that fits and doesn't hurt like crazy. It's one of those cute, quirky things about me that my family loves. Or hates. Yeah, it's probably hates. I swear I would rather go bare foot than wear shoes, except I can't wear orthotics without shoes and if I don't wear my orthotics, my back and hips and knees get all wonky and then.... Wow, I sound old. But I had this problem 10 years ago so I guess parts of me have been old for a long time. 

You know that lazy bunny shops online for all his essentials. But he probably doesn't exert the effort to use coupons and get good deals. He also doesn't appear to wear shoes. Silly rabbit. 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Switched at birth

This story about new evidence that may lead to the recovery of Amelia Earhart's plane is interesting, but mostly I'm just surprised at how much Amelia looks like Uma Thurman.



Right?

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Monday, March 19, 2012

The story of a large jawbreaker

Ambition.

Defeat.

Until tomorrow!


PS. I totally dislike my hands. I think they are my least favorite body part, and that's saying a lot when you consider how fat my butt is. 


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Friday, March 16, 2012

Three is the new four

Payton, my recently injured Whippet, is learning to hobble around on three legs with her fourth dragging. The orthopedic surgeon had good things to say about Payton's chances for a partial, if not full, recovery, but it's going to take time. And that's TIME, as in months and months. And maybe some more months. For the next four weeks, we have to keep her quiet, and not allow her to jump off or on the furniture. That feat seems impossible for a dog that's one quarter paralyzed, but before the vet said to restrict her activities, she had already done this several times. So now my sofa has exercise pen "bed rails" and the Wonder Whippet gets lifted on and off when necessary. She thinks this whole arrangement is shitty. I agree.

I also appreciate the way it makes my family room more white trashy. It goes well with the fact that, due to our current house painting situation, all the stuff that belongs on my back porch is stacked in various places in our yard. It looks great next to the agility equipment. But I digress.

Since the original incident happened in the middle of the night, I had traveled to the emergency vet and back while my kids were still sleeping. When they got up, not very long after I fell back asleep, I told them what happened. The Boy had this to say, and he came up with it just about as quickly as it takes to read it:

Boy: Wow! Poor Payton! But really, there are good things and bad things about this.


Me: Really?


Boy: Yes. Because, you know, it's bad, but on the other hand, she won't be stealing our food for a while. And that's good.

And he's totally right. I can't tell you how fantastic it has been to not have to sequester every food item behind a closed door or jammed in the microwave. Since she's been disabled, my purse hasn't been ransacked, and all the cookies I baked are still in the cookie container on the counter. Does it make up for the difficulty of carrying her around and holding her up when she poops? I'm not sure. But I still have all my cookies.

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Although this catastrophic canine injury had the potential to be expensive, it's oddly been pretty affordable. This is good because of all the money we haven't got. I just recently heard about Mission Tuition, which is a way to save for your children's college education while purchasing stuff you would normally buy online. I was impressed to see that they have so many participating merchants, although I was kind of surprised to learn that people shop online at places like Home Depot. For me, Home Depot is a store that you go to when you've completely mucked something up and need to fix it RIGHT NOW. I guess other people actually plan home improvements and order supplies in advance. I wonder what that's like?

Anyway, you can save for college using Mission Tuition through a 529 plan, which I've read about and might kind of understand. If you have kids and your college tuition savings plan is, like mine, "You better get a scholarship," you might want to check this out.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Piece of Sh!t Day

Today started for me at 1:40am after I had been asleep for about an hour. I heard weird noises from the living room. Payton the Wonder Whippet had lost the ability to use her right hind leg. She was fine an hour before and just like that, her world, and ours, has changed. I got her to the emergency vet before 3am. By 4, I knew that she had suffered a Fibrocartilaginous Embolism, and while she may recover some of her mobility, she'll probably no longer be the fastest dog in the house. She spent the day completely stationary, unable to walk without assistance, or even to go to the bathroom without help. Payton is nearly 11, but a young, healthy not-quite-11. Totally crappy. In fact, the situation is so crappy that I accidentally taught The Girl the word "sucks." Damn it. 


Payton on a better day.




And then I went to the eye doctor and found out I need bifocals. BIFOCALS.* (I'll be getting "monovision" contacts first, with one eye learning to handle the up close work and one eye doing the distance stuff. I'm sure that will go smoothly. Riiiiighht.) Plus I have to make all these changes in my eye care habits. No more swimming with my contacts in unless I wear goggles (which I hate). No more swimming without goggles period, really. Take omega 3 fatty acids (unless those mess up my bladder, which I guess I'll find out the hard way). Use eye drops. Throw away my disposable contacts after two weeks instead of wearing them until they irritate me (what, that wasn't a good plan?). And here's the best one: spend 15 minutes twice a day with a damp washcloth on my closed eyes. I don't get time to close my eyes for 5 minutes twice a day, so I'm sure this will work out well. On day 1 I managed to do this zero times, so I guess I'll have to build up to it.


I'm hoping there will be some sleep for us tonight, because three hours of broken sleep really doesn't cut it.   Tomorrow Payton and I will meet with a specialist who will hopefully teach me exercises to help her recover. And maybe tomorrow will be a better day. Because today totally sucked.**


*First person to make fun of me for being 40 and needing bifocals gets punched in the neck. So does the second person. Third person? Don't press your luck.


**Because I cheated and copied the name of Payton's disorder and pasted it in this entry, it completely effed up the font for the entire page. COULD. NOT. FIX IT. So, that's about right for today. 


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Saturday, March 10, 2012

CHEESECAKE!!!

Every so often, I get requests to write about various subjects on this blog. Most of the time, they are ridiculous topics, sometimes things that aren’t even grammatically correct. “Please write about ‘real estate California.’” Sure. No problem. I live in Florida and know nothing about real estate, but I’ll work that in nice and smooth.

Right.

But this time… this time the topic is CHEESECAKE! I can get all kinds of behind cheese cake! My favorite kind of cheesecake used to be the homemade Jello kind, you know, with the graham cracker crust? Yum! (I realize that this barely qualifies as cheesecake but whatever. Clearly I'm no dessert snob.) 

Since my teens I’ve expanded my appreciation of cheesecake into the realm of all. All cheesecake. One year at the Dog Writers of America Association annual writing contest banquet, my cheesecake dessert had icy chunks in it because it was partially frozen. You know want? IT WAS STILL GOOD. Not as good as completely unfrozen cheesecake, but still. STILL.

I’m hungry.

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Walgreens got a new shipment of Zotz...


And now they need more!

In an interesting twist, while I was paying for all the cherry Zotz, another woman came up with all the grape Zotz. She said, "I usually buy all the grape and all the cherry," and I said, "Well, I'm happy I beat you here!"

I'm not the only crazy. 

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Where's my cape?

Being able to sign an email with "Thanks," rather than "You're an idiot" is my super power.


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