Give 48 hours to Larry! Was this a HOAX??

Click the link to read about Larry, and learn how you can help!

48 for Larry

(this link has been deactivate)

Indie sellers united to help a fellow artisan. Funny how people disappear once they have a pocket full of other people's cash. Live and learn, I guess.

Some bidders never even received their items because the donors had no idea who to send them to. The invoices went out, people paid, and Larry disappeared.
added 1/24/2010

The veiw from my backdoor....

As most of you know, my posts are usually rants of driving through city traffic. I absolutely hate it. And if it wasn't for the beautiful area where I live, I'd move closer to work. But I'm not a city slicker, I'm a country gal.

And, as I sat under my grape covered pergola today, with the cat at my feet, listening to the birds chip I thought I'd give you a peek at my little slice of heaven in this world I call hell. This is what makes it all worth while. (click the pics to enlarge, and then hit your back button)

This is the view from my back door. I've always loved grape vines, and now I have my own.
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A peek under my pergola.
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My coffee cup from my dad. We live in Wisconsin. He was supposed to go to Florida on vacation, but instead he got to have quadruple bypass surgery. Yet he still managed to get me my coffee cup. We're both fanatics about our coffee :)
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This is supposed to be where the pool goes. However, hubby's hours were cut at work, and our last pool finally blew it's last leak. I still have hope for a new pool, though. Weeds are going today, and the tarp is going back down.
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Our backyard, garden and field.
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Behind the house. The old chicken coup will someday be torn down and my new studio will be there. I had a hard time saying goodbye to the daisies. But today they will be mowed down :(
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Past the yard, into one of our fields.
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Beyond the garden. That huge tree to the right is my beautiful willow. It basically blocks out all light, as you can see. But it's gorgeous.
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I love bugs! Seriously, what a cute butterfly ;)

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Widget Wars 2 On Blockhead Radio

You wanna know what widget wars are? Well, just read on and you'll find out! The below post is from Blockhead Radio's Blog:

Here at BHR we are all about fun and giveaways. So every month we are going to be doing a new round of World of Widgets. For every place that you post a BHR widget you get one entry. We have a lot of different ones to choose from from BHR widgets to Stalker Widgets. All of the widgets that on our promote page are usable. Just go there and copy and paste the code of the widget you want. Place it in your AF studio, blog, site, etc and come back here and put the link in the comments. You get one entry for every place that has the widget up. We will be out checking through out the month. At the end of the month we will use random.org to pick the winner. Rounds run till the end of the month and the winner is announced on the 5th of the following month. Every month starts a new round. So, if you don't win this month just put the link in the comments on the next round and be entered again.

Now, I know you're used to hearing me complain on this blog, so I won't disappoint you! If I could only get their station to tune in on my work computer, but I CAN'T!! GRRRR!!

http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/MSN_Emoticons/MSN-Emoticon-crying-038.gif

So, here you have it....

Thanks GafferGirls. There were a blogillion backgrounds to choose from. I think this one will suit me for the summer.

It's not too bright and nauseatingly cute. The birds feel like they get in the way, and i want to swoosh them on. But I'll get used to them.

So, now that I'm done complaining about cute back grounds, I can get on with my normal boohoo-ing!

Life ain't all sunshine and daisies!

Seems to me I've said that before....

Well, I thought since I'm such a crab ass that I thought I'd brighten up my blog a little with some daisy background. Well, honestly, that made me a little nauseous. So I moved on and tried different things.

I tried browns, blah. Blue, too bright. Green, too minty. The one you see now is the one I am stuck with until I feel like doing this again because I'm seriously getting irritated. I know I chose "The Cutest Blog On The Block" website, but come on! Does everything have to be so damn cute?

So, if you feel like clicking on the upper left and taking a peek. See if you can find a not-so-dark and gloomy back ground, and I'll maybe consider it. Unless you think this one is okay. But I'm thinking NOT!

Let's Go on A Treasure Hunt!

Doesn't that sound like fun! It does to me. Come and join me this Saturday in my ArtFire shop for an awesomely cool spectaculoso treasure hunt.

Here's how it will work...I'll bury a treasure somewhere in my ArtFire shop, and you have to dig it up. No shovel required, just your eyeballs!

The treasure you are searching for will actually be picture of a treasure chest. You need to find that in one of my listings. It will either be one of the pictures itself, or it will be hidden inside one of the pictures. I haven't quite decided yet, but feel free to comment and let me know :)

Your treasure will be an awesome spectaculoso gift from me! Just ask my dear friend Verna. She visited my Artfire shop and was the first person to make a purchase, and I gave her a gift of one awesome hot pink handmade lampwork bead and one cute little fairy pendant. Which she loved, by the way! Thanks Verna!!

While I'm chattering about my shop, let me add that I charge a very minimal shipping fee of under $2.50, no matter how many items you buy. Why? Because I can! lol Sassy, aren't I?

If you have any questions, please ask here, I'll be happy to answer them for you!

And, if you don't mind, I'd love to tell you my future plans for Glasstastic Treasures. As you may know, I have been searching for a new home for selling my items. Etsy has grown in popularity and size. But with that comes the added responsibility of having to list and relist my items just to get noticed. That means I have to pass the cost on to you, my customer, by raising my prices so I can pay all the fees I have to pay Etsy and PayPal.

So, I've hunted high and low, and finally found a site that drives traffic to my shop, and I don't have to list and relist to get my items seen. That venue is ArtFire. I love it. It's fun, friendly, and colorful on the eye. AND, they're going to let us customize our shops with awesome cool colors. We get to be unique and individual! How great is that?

I pay one low fee per month to list, and I can list and list and list. Nothing else. So I don't have to add fees to my items. All I have to do is make that one extra sale to cover my costs! Yahoo!!

And, even better is the fact that ArtFire offers a 28 second check out. No need to sign up for an account, or sign in. Just click and buy, pay and run. Zippity doo dah, you're all done. Check it out below. I know Verna used it. And she didn't have any complaints! (Waves to Verna)

So, come help me pay my first month's rent, hehe, buy something great for yourself, and get something great from me! See you there, this Saturday!!

So, when you travel halfway across the country to get to work...

...you encounter a gazillion and a half insane and stupid drivers!!

You may notice that a lot of my rants involve driving. That's because I have to drive clear across my state and into the next to get to a job that gives me migraines and carpal tunnel. So I come across all kinds of insane behavior.

Like this morning. A delivery truck had to honk at some idiot who cut him off, even though that idiot thought they had plenty of room. And she did it because people can't decide how fast they want to drive. I can hear them...seriously, I can. They're sitting there going, "la la la. I think I'll speed it up a bit. Oh no, now I'm in front of the vehicle next to me, I better slow down. La la la. Oops, now that vehicle is in front of me, I better speed up." All the while never giving anyone any real room to get BY!!! So YES, I CUT YOU OFF BECAUSE I HAVE TO BE TO WORK BEFORE THE SUN SETS, and I know I had room, dude.

See! Now I've become one of those annoying drivers. Which, thankfully, the Speedy Delivery guy (yes, that's the name on the truck) reminded me with his honk. Yes, I SAW YOU FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Now move!! Remember, I need to be in front.

And you know what? I really love my V6 Impala. It goes fast. Did I tell you one day I was driving down the freeway and changed lanes to pass a car that was going slower then me. And what happens? Yep, he speeds up. FINE, I'll pull back into the lane behind you! (angry face and lots of @#$%^&*!)

What? NOW YOU SLOW DOWN? God, fine, I'll pass you....hey...what the? No, you are not going to play this game with me, asshat (I toned that down a little for you faint of heart), you are not going to speed up when I do, and slow down when I do.

So I floor it and zip past him. It doesn't take long for my car to do 80. And I take my foot off the gas and let it go back to my cruising speed. HUGE smirk on my face, cuz, yeah, I passed the Cavalier full of teenagers!

What's this? The Cavalier is pulling up behind me? Changing lanes to pass me? Ah, no, because we're not playing that game! I have a 6 cylinder, you only have 4. You will NOT beat me!

So, we're traveling at about 75 now, because I thought it best I stay in front of the little people. But, no, they feel the need to creep up on me, so I figure that the car load of punk kids should be given the evil eye, so I turn my head with a huge grin on my face, that grin said, "Really? Do you want to take on a v6? Not only will I win, but your rods will shoot out of your engine block, and the smoke will be seen for miles around. And yes, I'll stop and laugh while I call you an expensive tow truck, YOU EVIL LITTLE PUNKS!"

So they backed off and slowed down, and left me alone. Don't mess with a middle aged angry woman behind a V6 engine!!!

And that is pretty much a typical adventurous day on the drive to work for me!

What are you up to?

Oh, I'm glad you asked. I'm sitting here eating my hot dog smothered in ketchup with some mustard and relish wondering why some people say real humans don't put ketchup on hot dogs because I thought I was human and I have ketchup on my hot dog, so go figure. Real people do eat ketchup on their hot dogs!

Before that I was cleaning the bathroom and as I Swiffered (Swiffer company owes me for product plug) I wondered how I could possibly have any hair left on my head because it all appears to be on the floor.

I'd cleaned the toilet earlier and was astonished to find that I had to pee so bad I couldn't wait to wipe the seat dry after using those soaking wet cleaning cloths and now my butt is sanitized.

Oh, and my daughter called to see if I'd baby sit and I said no and she replies that it's okay cuz they're having kids over and her son wants to play with his friend anyways. So I'm left there staring at my phone wondering why she even asked me in the first place, so obviously I failed some sore of test because she said goodbye.

Before that I was wondering why I didn't think before signing up or another website because now I have about 8 million and I can't even keep track of them all. And you think I would have been happy to find out that one of my websites completely deleted my account, because that would free up my time. But no, I went and re-established that account and now there's somewhere else I have to post and upload pictures.

And if that wasn't bad enough I created another Flickr group so I can have less free time then I do now because I really don't like sleeping, that's what coffee was invented for.

Yesterday I had realized that since I now have a new email address I'd best update that info with all my online payment accounts so that when they email me to tell me my payment bounced I'll know why the TV, phone and electricity has suddenly been shut off. I spend half of today updating that, and also found out my daughter has her name on my amazon.com account which is weird cuz how the hell did she even get in there, dang those "remember me" buttons. And there's a page called "Nana's profile" so that obviously was my grand daughters doing. So I can only assume my daughter was drinking and has now involved her 8 year old in the classic pass time of drinking and doing drive by profile changes.

And while cleaning out my old email box I found info on even more websites I'm signed up on and then realized I hadn't posted on my blog for a while but I really didn't know what I was going to say so I had more coffee. And a couple hot dogs with ketchup. YES, KETCHUP! Because I'm some weird alternate me from another dimension who likes ketchup on her hot dog. And that brings me back to my blog and the story of my day.

It's now 2:06 pm CST. So thanks for asking what I've been up to. Because otherwise I'd have had NOTHING to write about, except maybe that guy in the Max Gray Construction truck who cut me off the other day because he was obviously still sleeping as could be seen by his wild bedhead hair sticking out all over the place, hello it's called a hair brush. And the fact that he didn't even bother to turn his head to check his blind spot to see if my car was there, which it WAS!! Or was it Grey Max something or other? Well, either way, you suck at driving!

Have a good day. (Waiting for check from Swiffer company)

Driving Leasons from a Pro

I thought that I would give everyone some tips on driving. Since most of the people on the road seem to lose all common sense when the get behind the wheel.

One thing to remember is SAFETY FIRST. The second thing is that I like to be in front of the pack, so just get the hell out of my way already!!

Okay. With those important reminders said, let's move on to my observations from the snowstorm driving I experienced yesterday....

• Speeding up while someone is trying to pass you will just cause them great rage and they may just run your ass off the road!
• Pulling out in front of people when the roads are slippery is NOT a good idea. Unless you want to file a claim with your insurance company, have your rates go up and find out you didn't have gap coverage so you'll have to sell your first born to get a new car!!
  
• Just because there is room for your car in between two other cars in the next lane does NOT mean it's safe to put your car between them! Seriously people, THINK!
• Pulling out in front of a semi is NEVER, I can't stress it enough-N E V E R a good idea. Do you realize it takes them about 10 minutes to stop that huge load of 800 million pounds of cargo? So basically, by the time they've stopped, all 18 wheels have run your dumb ass over. Don't let Darwin win this one folks. Smarten up!
• Can't seem to make it up that slippery slope? Have you ever thought of NEW TIRES? I shouldn't have to point this one out, but you made me.
• When changing lanes on snow covered roads do it slowly and smoothly. Don't jerk the steering wheel to move the car over the little ridge of snow. It will grab your tires and whip you into the ditch. Seriously! Ask all the people I laugh at as I wave at them in the ditch...while I drive by!
  
• If you are going to drive 10 miles an hour on the freeway please turn your flashers on so we do not have to swerve into the next lane to avoid killing ourselves because you're too scared to hit mach 1. I'd like to thank the person yesterday who DID have their flashers on, and recommend the above advise on new tires!

Well, this was all I felt like getting into today. Seems like common sense to me.

Women's Lib: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

As one of my co-worker friends and I pondered how much we hated our jobs the other day, we wondered, WHY? Why did we think it was going to be such a great idea to get all liberated and stuff? Do you realize that most of my generation really only gave themselves more work to do?

Now, don't get me wrong. Yay woman's lib, and being able to make choices, and do what we want, and vote. Not sure how that's really helped us out, in the long run. But seriously, who thought it would be a good idea to have to work all day, go to the grocery store, pick the kids up from daycare, cook supper, clean up supper, clean up after the kids and then have the energy to make your husband "happy" before bed? Huh? Who thought that was a good idea?

Some of you may think I'm being a little over dramatic. But you are probably the ones who have really great hubbies who help cook dinner (besides hamburgers), and will help wash the dishes, and put the kids to bed, and help you clean up the toys. And then gives you a full-body message to help you relax and make you "happy".

But, in reality, what woman's lib did was just pile a 9-5 job on top of everything else we have to do. I know, because my Neanderthal of a husband point blank told me just last winter that it was his duty to take care of the outdoor chores, and my duty to take care of the "indoor" chores.

That's right ladies. My DUTY was to clean up after his lazy butt, cooking and cleaning and making him "happy"! And then what does he do? He DITCHES me mid winter to go gallivanting around the country by taking on an over-the-road driving job. So, now who gets to shovel the snow? ME!

The only good thing was I only had to pick up after myself. And in reality, it turned out to be less work just taking care of myself AND shoveling, then cleaning up after him, while he did the shoveling. Which seriously people, is not all that often lately. Especially since he's decided we will survive walking through a walkway covered in snow and ice.

So, I have to cut this short. I just got a call from the garage to come out and work on my work bench stool. Because it's mine, and therefore I have to do it.

Don't get me wrong, I love my hubby. He's great, he gets me propane and oxygen for my torches, he makes really good meatloaf and hamburgers. But he doesn't really lift a finger in the the household department. I have learned to do plumbing, electrical, and carpentry. The first two I learned from my husband, the latter from my dad.

So, I'm off to do the manly thing...get the power tools and get the job done right by having a woman do it...ME!!

Everyone is dumb, but me....

Did you ever say that to yourself? I'm guessing you have. I say it to myself all the time. Like, when I heard about the Firefox browser, at first, I said, well, I've never heard of that, must be dumb. Then I looked it up online, and downloaded it and WOW. I said to myself, I am so smart to have found Firefox, it's so FAST!! It is, seriously fast, like the stealth bomber, except it won't fall apart and crash on someone's house. And the government has nothing to do with it so it's tax free....for now.

So, today, my little anti virus icon is yellow, meaning I better find out what's going on, cuz yellow means "caution" and all. So it says I need to download updates...click here. Okay, so I click, and what happens? IE opens up (Internet Explorer). Well, again I say to myself, "Well, that's dumb that I can't make it open in Firefox but I so do not have time to mess with this dumb thing because I have a blog to write. And I already spent a hundred hours trying to figure it out before and it apparently only likes IE, so that's just dumb. I thought Bill Gates was smart so why his anti virus only works in IE is so totally dumb!

Well, I come here all irritated and everything because I hate IE, and I start typing about how dumb everything is and I get to the point where I type about my anti virus being yellow and my computer freezes up. Again...DUMB IE!! So I click on that, and after all that time nothing had happened on IE cuz it froze up all dumb and stuff. So I go get more coffee, wishing I liked brandy and whiskey cuz I'd so be adding some of that to my coffee, but I don't so I'll just have to be sober and mad.

So the dumb IE finally loads it's dumb page and I click on the update icon...again! The box pops up saying "download 1 of 1". Well, thank the good lord for that because that dumb download is putting a good 248 MB on my computer! Taking up good space I could be downloading other cool stuff onto. But no, I have to update my anti virus because of all the DUMB hackers and virus creators who have nothing better to do with their dumb lives then make our really cool and smart lives miserable.

Okay, so after all this talk about all the dumb stuff going on in my computer it still has only loaded 46 MB of it's dumb 248 MB so I might as well go shopping or something. Maybe I'll send Bill and email and tell him how dumb IE is because he just doesn't know it yet, even though he probably totally owns it but I can't look it up because the dumb download is hogging all my PF usage and totally slowing down my computer. Then maybe he'll say that I'm so smart he needs to hire me to help him spend his money making really cool websites that are way better then IE and I'll be famous and everyone with totally know how smart I am.

BTW, only 72 MB downloaded! Dumb download!

I'm BAAAACK, and I'm goin' to hell!

I so had to bring this blog back to life so I could complain about my evil nemesis. It's true, just like Superman, Batman and Mr. Incredible, I too have an evil nemesis.

She's an evil troll from where I work. Yes, that's right. I called her a troll, and although some may say I could go to hell for being so mean, I have to say I am already in HELL!!

So, previously, I had complained (not on this blog) of her staring at my back all day long. So after making a few comments on that habit of hers, I finally had to yell at her. And it all went downhill from there.

I recently have decided that she is a she-devil and her sole purpose in life to to make my life pure hell.

So, generally I am a very happy person, I love to laugh. And yes, as proven by this blog, I love to gripe about people who make me mad. We all do. And so does SHE! However, her negativity is energy draining and it saps any and all happiness from your body. Basically she sucks the life essence from you like those creepy bird thingies in Dark Crystal.

So, at work, in our Dilbert cubes I like to call jail cells, I had requested a wall so that she would have difficulty turning around and staring at the back of my head. As well as tapping on the back of my chair and saying "look at this service request. don't these people know any of their own rules?" I cringe at the sound of her voice, just so you know.

Well, as you can imagine management told me to shut the hell up because I am NOBODY and I am not worth the extra $5 to put up a stinking wall. So I built my own wall. It's an imaginary wall. But it was practically impenetrable by most super hero standards.

So, anyway, the other day my new supervisor asked how it was going and I told him how it was. I wanted a wall, or to be moved, or relocated to the middle of the Sahara Desert where I could be eaten alive by sand dune creatures. But NOOOO!

So he says to me, "Can't you be nice and just get along?" So I think to myself, as I am always the optimist (NOT)...Sure, I'll give it a try. So I come to work the next day, say hi to the evil one, and make idle chit chat for at least a good 15 seconds, but not too much. And what the hell do you suppose happens? YES, that's right. All the rest of the day I get to hear, "why was this sent to us? What am I supposed to do with that. What is this service request supposed to mean. Don't they know anything. Look at this scanning, I can't ready that. This is ridiculous, that is wrong, this is wrong, I'm a bitch and I can't stop complaining!" Okay, I ad-libbed (how the Sam hell do you spell that word?) some of that, but you get the gist of it.

So, in essence, my wall of security was way too easily knocked down, violated, ransacked. Just like the Berlin Wall. Or those farmers in China who dig holes in the Great Wall because the grass is always greener on the other side.

So, I have decided it's time to take matters into my own hands. I have to do it. There's no other way. No, not a gun, geesh people! Voodoo doll!! I made it myself.

It should be totally effective in putting a hex on the old crow. Maybe it will even turn her into an old crow. But either way, tomorrow, I take my little Voodoo doll and when she turns and taps on the back of my chair tomorrow, if one evil hiss comes out of her mouth, ZAP, she's gonna get the Voodoo!

I totally believe in taking care of things logistically! I mean after all, what else can I do?