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!!