Chocolate cake, dammit!

I am on a diet right now. If you've ever dieted you can feel my pain, I'm sure. Like most people I know, I truly love to eat. It's not just about sustenance for me, it's about the pure pleasure derived from eating and savoring each bite of food. I associate happy feelings with food. Eating out is a celebration, ordering pizza is a treat, ice cream and other sweets are a reward for something I've done well...like sticking to my diet. While some things I find easy to either cut back on or find a low-cal, low-fat substitutes for, some things just don't work that way. For example, last night I went to the store in search of something chocolate. If you're a woman you understand this sudden and sometimes life-threatening craving - as in - "if I don't get something chocolate in the next 30 seconds, someone will die"...if you're a man, then you simply cannot understand my pain, please stop reading now. While wandering the aisles of the grocery store, I picked up such things as brownies, cookies, chocolate ice cream, hot fudge...and put them all down in exchange for chocolate pudding made with skim milk. I was so excited, thinking that this would cure my chocolate craving for the night and leave me content at the end of the day. How wrong I was. One bite of pudding with chunks of pudding powder still standing and I was so disappointed! How could I have thought this would do it? I ate about 3 more bites and put the stupid bowl back in the fridge, leaving the kitchen dejected and totally unsatisfied.

Now you also know, if again, you are a woman, that these cravings, if not quenched, will return. Day after day, hour upon hour you will sit there dreaming of chocolate bunnies, chocolate chips, chocolate cream pies....anything that will do the trick and leave you at peace for just a little while. Today, my dream was realized in a piece of wonderful something that a co-worker made for our vice president's birthday. This heavenly concoction consisted of a chocolate crust, a layer of gooey-chocolate-chippiness, something akin to cheesecake and topped with some other form of chocolate goodness. I am sated. I am satisfied. I can go on with my day and be at peace until the next craving hits...mmm, I could really go for a big bowl of popcorn!

Monday, Monday...

It's Monday again. *yawn* Today is going to be random thoughts for a Monday morning (not that every other day's posts aren't full of random thoughts!).

This weekend we had no cable. The cable company turned our cable off by accident on Friday afternoon and it's to be turned back on tomorrow morning. I almost wish we didn't have cable at all after this weekend (except for 1 hour on Tuesday nights when my all-time favorite show, Gilmore Girls, is on). We went out to dinner, rented loads of movies, went for a walk, read by the lake, took a nap, played with our dogs, played some games...it was a very nice weekend. Reminds me of when we first starting dating. You don't sit around in front of the TV much when you're still trying to figure eachother out; when you're in the first stages of "this-could-be-the-one".

Still no word on our house. They have until this Saturday to close, then the seller is in breach of contract and we can walk away from the deal. It may be back to the drawing board for us!

My allergies are so bad today. I almost stayed home from work! I suppose I should break down and buy some allergy medicine, but I'm trying to avoid that. It's so expensive and tends to make me feel drugged up. I guess I'll just have to put up with the sneezing!

I could really use a cup of coffee right now. But I'm trying to cut back. Blah.

I'm getting kind of sick of the diet I'm on. Carnation Instant Breakfast in the morning and at lunch, sensible dinner at night. All I really want is a big hunk of chocolate cake, is that so bad?

Need pillow.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..............

See? Totally random.

Achoo!

It's allergy season in Tennessee. I can tell you this because I have experienced the symptoms for the last 3 days. Sneezing, coughing, itchy, watery eyes, headaches...this is my life for the next few months. I have had allergies since I was in high school. My parents used to make me mow the lawn when I lived at home, which, as you can imagine, was no fun at all since it induced 20 minute-long sneezing fits. My husband swears I'm making this up. He thinks I'm just trying to get out of my dusting and lawn care duties. I wish it were true.

I heard once that a sneeze can be equated to 1/8 of an orgasm...which means that if I can only sneeze a few more times......

ACHOOOO! :-) Maybe this allergy stuff's not so bad, eh?

Sightings

This morning on my way to work I was behind a beat up pickup truck with the following bumper sticker:

BUCKLE UP. IT MAKES IT HARDER FOR THE ALIENS TO SUCK YOU OUT OF YOUR CAR.

No joke. Bear in mind I do live in Tennessee, so I suppose the sticker is more appropriate here than say, Minnesota I suppose. While I love living in the South, there are things here that surprise me every day. Some days it's like living in a different country. There's a different language (ya'll, 'preciatechya...see Jeff Foxworthy for the rest) for sure.

So, make sure you buckle up. After all, you just never know, ya'll.

Blah

I'm no poet, but I'm not feeling the long drawn out post today. I'm also not in the best of moods. Bear with me.

Have you ever had a day that makes you want to run away?
Have you ever actually done it?
Quit your job, sold your house, ran like hell?
That's bravery.
A girl can dream.
Live somewhere quiet.
Work someplace simple.
Enjoy life.
If ever there were a day...
Today is it.
So much for that dream.
Live another day.
Tomorrow will be better.
Maybe no one actually ever gets away from it all.
That's the beauty of life.
Unpack the bags.
There will be no running today.

Buying a home: why so many people rent

This Thursday we were supposed to close on our very first home. I say SUPPOSED to, because they have pushed back our closing date (they, of course, being the faceless people involved in the business end of this deal) indefinately. They keep telling me that it might, maybe, hopefully be sometime or another next week. This does not work for me. I am a planner. It is in my genes - my mother might die if you took her calendar away from her. So this state of "maybes" and "sometimes" just throws the proverbial monkey wrench into my plans. I have the utility companies planned, the movers planned, even planned vacation time for preparing the house for move-in. I now wait anxiously for the answer: when will we close. Hopefully it will be before our loan-lock expires or my husband may actually hurt someone on the seller's end. All I want is an answer. Is that too much to ask? You would think that these people, actually doing this for a living would have some idea of what is going on - since they do this EVERY DAY. Apparently I am incorrect in my assumptions. I guess I should never assume - after all, you know what happens when we assume. But this time it's not me that should be worried.....

My menagerie

I suppose if I'm going to do this blog I ought to talk a little about myself and my home life. I don't much like talking about myself, so instead I'll write a bit about my menagerie.

Most people I know have a pet. Most have one cat, maybe two, or a dog. When my husband and I moved to Nashville from central Illinois last year, we moved 2 cats, Josie and Lilly.

Josie
I acquired Josie from underneath my uncle's couch. She was the quiet one in the litter, so of course she's turned out to be the devil. She loves me, but only me. She's a hisser and a growler and will attack you if you look at her wrong. Somehow I interpret that as love. I guess that's what sets an animal lover apart from just a plain-ol pet owner! I think it's cute when she bites and even sweeter when she attacks the hairbrush. This adorable behavior is what caused me to get Lilly.

Lilly
I figured getting another cat might calm down my cantankerous Josie. Lilly is the sweetest cat on the planet. She walks around talking to herself all day long and will even answer you when you talk back. She's an orange cat, which is extremely rare for a female. Something like 99% of orange cats are males. When we first got Lilly they fought like, well, cats. There was lots of flying fur and constant hissing. She and Josie don't exactly like eachother but they do peacefully coexist now.

Before we moved, we had been talking about getting a dog "someday", but had no plans to do so until we bought a house. We will be moving into our first home next week. Needless to say, we didn't wait.

Rory
About this time last year a lady at work brought in a little chihuahua mix puppy looking for a new home. Romantic that I am, I thought my husband would be so surprised and would think I was the greatest wife ever for getting him a puppy. I even put the little rascal in a box and gave her to my hubby like a present. After recovering from shock it took about a week to convince him that the little girl puppy we soon named Rory would be worth the work and extra money. Turns out I was right (and yes, my husband will admit that!) and we couldn't imagine life without our Rory.

Faith, Hope & Joy - and Mocha
A couple of months after we brought Rory home, we were walking her in our ghetto apartment complex (more on this later), and found a litter of kittens and the mother cat in the bushes. Suckers that we are (you're probably picking up on this by now), we took them in. We did find a home for the mother cat with another pair of suckers that we know, but kept the 3 kittens, christening them Faith, Hope & Joy. Since one good turn deserves another (or one act of suckerdom deserves a slap in the face), when those other suckers I mentioned found a whole litter of black kittens at Halloween, guess who took one in? Yup. Seeing a pattern here? We named her Mocha because she's black with a white spot on her chest - coffee with cream.

Maggie
Nope, not done yet. I decided that once we got the house, Rory should have a playmate. 6 cats are fun and all, but she can't really play with them. Oh, she certainly tries, but they don't much stand for it. So I surfed the web, went to pet stores, checked the newspaper...anything that had the word "free puppy" in it my eyes were drawn to. I had planned on getting another puppy. Something cute and cuddly and small. But I ended up with Maggie. I got off work early one afternoon and went to our local pound to look for puppies. I really didn't think I would find one since most pound puppies (yup, like the cartoon from the 80's) will grow up to be BIG dogs. I walked in and made straight for the puppy room. My suspicions were confirmed. All going to be huge monster dogs. So, I made the rounds in the adult dog room, just to see if maybe there was an overflow of puppies in there or some smaller dogs. On my 2nd lap around I saw her. She's a year-old, part Cocker Spaniel part Dachshund, and I fell in love instantly. She came home 2 days later and she's Rory's new best friend, and ours.

Rufus
Last one! I promise! This weekend we found Rufus. He was being chased around our neighborhood by the millions of parentless children (again, more on this later). He found our dogs very interesting when they went outside to use the bathroom. We coaxed him to the patio to eat some food, which you could tell by looking at him that he hasn't had for a while. He was wearing a collar but no tags and when we had him scanned for microchips he was without that too. He was filthy and you can see his ribs and spine. Someone obviously does not care for this animal. He is such a sweet dog and I just can't understand how anyone could let him get this way! A man in our complex mentioned that he might be a dog that was accidently let out of another apartment by the maintenance crew a few days ago. Obviously the "owner" doesn't much care. Rufus, as we're calling him, was in the neighborhood, visible, for hours on Saturday. Besides that, the dirt on him and the lack of nutrition are enough to show that someone doesn't care for him. Rufus will have a home as long as we're able to give him one.

So, there you go. A bit about me...well, my pets at least, which when you think about it, tells you an awful lot about me already.

Beginnings

This is a test. A test of the emergency broadcast system...beeeep!

I thought perhaps the old "testing, testing, 1,2,3" thing or the "is this thing on?" thing were a bit overdone - so here's my test to see if I'm intelligent enough to start a blog (goodness help us if I'm not!), if I really have anything to say and if anyone will really care what I do say.