So, what have you done for yourself lately?

Today is my birthday. I got greetings from the Toyota dealership that services my truck, a Twitter friend, Peter, my sister and my three “birthday bunch” friends.
Today, I took care of Mr. Fluffles and the plants, changed the litter box, brought in the truck for an oil change and bought a book for Emme.
My friends took me to dinner; we had a great time and they spent way too much money, for which I feel bad.
Out of all the ways I could have spent my birthday, I decided the most fun would be to poke a few hypocrites and skewer the wicked. I did that and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Guilt Trip

My cat, Mr. Fluffles, has lived here for about a month and a half, apparently enough time to have become spoiled where food is concerned.
This morning, he sat in the kitchen looking plaintive while I, having fed him an hour before, prepared my breakfast: turkey sausage, home made apple sauce, half a bagel, any one of which would probably have caused him intestinal distress.
I’ve been careful about his diet mostly because of his age, 14, and also because he had slightly alarming blood test results a while back.
The furry guilt trips started when I made the mistake of giving him bacon a couple of weeks ago. He loves it and his former owner told me it was okay to feed it to him.
Since that time, though, he’s been restless around meal time, acting more like a dog than a cat.
If it weren’t for the noises he makes, I’d really wonder.

DIL

Bonnie has asked me to post an entry as a follow-on to some ill-considered remarks that I published last December, and I’m happy to do so.
She and I have known each other for over 15 years, but we’ve had trouble making a positive connection. Our culture makes hay on MIL/DIL conflicts: it’s an ugly cliche that has fueled thousands of comedy routines, advice columns and books.
I didn’t realize until very recently that Bonnie thought I hated her and that she’s been upset for years with things that I’ve said.
I know very well how that feels, and I asked her to please forgive me.
It’s almost impossible to, as the poet said, see ourselves as others see us.
There have been times in business in which I’ve been the subject of gossip and resentment, of anonymous bad-mouthing. It’s destructive and counter-productive.
So, I respect Bonnie, who is not a confrontational person, to have the courage to speak her mind.

Continue reading DIL

Friday Five

From Live Journal:
1. If your car/bike is wrecked (if your mass transit service goes belly-up), do you know what you would do to replace it, perhaps even have the car or bike you want already picked out?
Love the urban tilt to this question. If my truck were wrecked, I’d buy another truck, but with a bigger extended cab.
2. A client/friend gives you a lottery ticket, which wins you a prize worth (after taxes) ten times as much money as you earned/received last year. What will you do with it?
Buy a house outright, retire.
3. Fight or flee?
Depends: usually flee, sometimes fight.
4. Someone performs a random act of kindness that is exactly what you need on a bad day. If you wish to pay them back, would you write a poem, bake, buy something, or what?
Last time this happened, I got them a gift certificate to a restaurant. Everyone always appreciates those!
5. Your manager commands you to pick a charity to contribute to. Do you resist? If not, which charity would be your first choice?
What manager, I’m no one’s slave (or master). Leukemia/Lymphoma Society would be the first choice of charities worth donating to, Salvation Army as well.

Nowhere to Go (and Glad of It)

It’s miserable outside, sleeting and windy.
Rain may arrive later, but in the meantime, travel has got to be horrendous. I’m grateful that by sheer luck, we did our running around yesterday when driving was easy.

Apology to Lou

I’ve been on the hunt for a new dehumidifier, and visited several stores yesterday to do some comparison shopping.
When I got to Walmart, a salesman named Lou asked me politely if I was sure I wanted a DEhumidifier: did I want to add water to the air, or take it out?
I thought that he was patronizing me and told him so – male salesperson in a hardware department thinking that his female customer was an idiot.
Turns out, he wasn’t trying to give me a hard time at all. He was extremely helpful and passed along 15 years worth of accumulated wisdom, including the comment that, indeed, some people don’t know the difference.
Turns out, he is absolutely right: I ended up buying my dehumidifer at Lowe’s for several reasons, among them a good warranty, but along the way, stopped in to see what Target had to offer.
A young male salesperson insisted on directing me, not once but twice, to two different displays of HUMIDIFIERS. I could not convince him, come hell or high water, that I was looking for a device to take water OUT of the air.
So, apologies to Lou: I am not an idiot, and neither are you, but they are certainly out there. Your customers are lucky, I hope they find their way to you from Target.

It’s That Time Again

The Friday Five:
Chocolate
What tastes best covered in chocolate?
Fruit.
Why do you eat chocolate the way you do (or don’t)?
My granddaughter Emme and I prefer white chocolate but hot cocoa is good, too. My favorite way to eat it would be as curls on a cake with white frosting, any cake that doesn’t have pineapple.
Do you know how chocolate is made?
No….you’re scaring me!
If you knew you would live 5 years longer if you never ate any chocolate again, would you give it up?
I guess so. Quit smoking for that reason, even though I enjoyed it.
Have you ever had carob?
I think so, but again, I’m not a brown chocolate person, so it didn’t impress me much.