Mmmm ... bacon.

Just had to share this hilarious Bacon Flowchart via my tweeps on Twitter:

Not much in the world beats bacon.

*droool*

Today's funny

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A small success!

When we first moved here to The Burrow it was spring of 2003.  My oldest, Boy, was 1 and I was hugely pregnant with my oldest girl, The Human Crash Test Dummy.

After THCTD was born (in April), I spent the summer and fall improving the house, building a door to the upstairs, taking down all the weird hooks one of the previous owners had put up everywhere and the hideous, cheap shelves another had.

Then winter arrived.

We discovered v. quickly one of the problems with owning an old house.  There is NO insulation underneath the floor, and the hall, which used to be the porch connecting the house and the detatched kitchen, had gaps between the boards that you could see down into. All of the windows and doors leaked; you could stand in the parlour and feel the wind when it blew outside - which is often.

So I spent the first winter tacking up plastic on the windows, and caulking, and weatherstripping.

My average monthly gas bill for heating was $450.

In subsequent winters I put up more plastic, hung heavy blankets or drapes over little-used windows, and this last summer, I finished installing curtains in front of ALL exterior doors (in the British fashion - you draw them aside when you want to use the door.)  Here's a v. fancy version:

My gas bill (and my electric bill in the summer) has dropped by over half but I didn't really realise the huge difference until this morning.  It's supposed to be 21 degrees tonight and it was right at 30 this morning, but when I walked into the kitchen it didn't feel any colder.  The heater no longer runs constantly (I have it set at 68) and the house is pretty comfortable all over if you have long sleeves on.

Winterizing, success!  (Finally!)

Today's funny

This one totally made me snicker:


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Forum Rage?

Oh for fark's sake!  Please remind me why I decided, suddenly, this morning, to get back on a certain v. popular mommy website with a massive forum?

I stopped going there because of the extraordinarily stupid posts made by women (I am frightened that some of these people are raising children) on the boards.  I get so angry reading that I have to walk away from the computer.

Don't get me wrong. srsly. Some of these chicks are smart, honest, well-informed, and articulate.  But 90% are just farking morons.  They post the dumbest crap and some parenting ideas just make my blood boil (just to pick one turd out of the crap pile: rewarding a 6 year old with money and electronics for doing what he should be doing ANYWAY [his school work], then being baffled as to why he had no respect for the gifts and STILL wasn't doing his work. THEN BLAMED THE TEACHER!  Teacher is hideously "old school" and expected him to sit still, do his work, and be accountable for his actions!  Imagine!)

(OK, just one more: mother of autistic child who 'won't eat'* fruit, veg, or meat so she has taken her off dairy. Wonders why child seems worse as well as ill, now. You are voluntarily feeding your child ONLY GRAINS.  She isn't a cow!  She needs, oh, say, PROTEIN?)

Jeez!  I so need to stay away from that place.  Everyone is entitled to have her own opinion (and voice it, even in bad bad bad english) and everyone is allowed to raise her child in whatever ridiculous way she wishes.  I just need to not go read about it.

Oh, and, by the way, apparently "badly behaved" is now called "strong willed".

-----

*As a mother of an autistic child AND 4 other toddler/pre-schooler/whatever children, I can tell you if you are allowing your child to 'not eat' fruits and veg because he won't actually bite into an apple or chew a cooked carrot, then you, honey, are a farkin' fool.  You can hide fruit in smoothies and yoghurt, and veg in meatloaf, as well as dozens of other ways to slip them in.

Heroic mule!

This was just so weird I had to blog it: Lou the mule saves Tennessee woman from fire.

"Jolene Solomon [snip] had just finished eating supper on New Year's Day when Lou's braying and acting up got her attention.


Solomon, 63, who lived alone, stepped outside, she saw her house was on fire. She called 911 and as she waited for firefighters, her home and everything in it burned to the ground.


She said her father bought Lou years ago to help her and her late sister, Blue, around the farm. It took Lou months to get over the loss of her sister.


Solomon said she has 'lost it all', but credits Lou with saving her life.


Jolene is staying with family members and plans to rebuild her home. The home was built by her grandfather and she had lived there all her life."

The mule is clearly quite elderly.  I'm so sorry this woman lost her home but I'm glad she and the old mule are alright.  Did you catch the name of her sister, the original owner of the mule?

"Blue"

Back From Diet Vacation Day!

A few friends of mine and I put out collective foots down (lol) the other day and made each other a proposal.

A HUGE number of people overindulge during the holidays.  I ranted about the phenomenon of people who allow themselves to eat like pigs over Thanksgiving and Chrstmas then panic and make New Years resolutions they won't keep, buy exercise equipment they won't use, and start get-skinny-quick diets they won't stick to. All of this rather than just controlling themselves a bit.

Well, what about those of us who are serious about lifestyle changes and who were starting, or in the middle of, our diets when the dreaded Holiday Season of Eats hit?

My friends and I came up with a solution.  We wouldn't give in to the holiday season and eat like people out of control. We wouldn't have all that weight loss we achieved before the holidays be in vain.

We didn't punt our weight loss diets.  We decided to put them on hold, enjoy ourselves, surripticiously watch what we ate, and resume our weight loss efforts afterward.

We have decided on January 2nd and I have dubbed it: Back From Diet Vacation Day!

We're rerailing our diets, getting back on track, getting our grooves back!

Care to join us?