Blood and Gore

I've been a bad blog friend lately. For the past couple of weeks I just wasn't able to find the time to blog. It wasn't like I didn't think about it everyday, I did. But between work, sleeping till noon, (I do stay up to 3am work night) and trying to be the best mother in the world by planning a much begged for Halloween party, I just didn't have it in me. I also stopped following my own advice, you know, like taking vitamins and exercising, going to bed slightly earlier bla bla bla. All that did was make me feel more tired and anti-social.

Well, I'm back and I took all my vitamins today.

We had our first kid Halloween party on Sunday. It was supposed to be on Saturday but because the road was washed away, we had to change it.

The kids and I spent a lot of time, and Hus spent a lot of money, preparing for this party. There were 8, 11-14 year old girls and 6, 6-8 year old kids.

I had activities planned for the young ones, painting pumpkins, ring toss and a walk through a haunted path in the woods. Mostly they just wanted to run around in the dark screaming.

The older girls decorated cupcakes, tried to play the Ouija Board and Bloody Mary. They also ran around in the dark screaming a lot. E has the best scream ever.

I dressed up as Madame Hydra, a Gypsy, and read Tarot cards for the older girls and did palm readings for a few of the little ones. For example "Your lifeline is very interesting, ooh, I see something very spectacular in your future and I think it has to do with you owning a lot of...monkeys!"

We had a lot of lovely bouquets around for decorations.

Of course we decorated our Fairy Garden.

My favorite witch. I made it a few years ago, while on a sewing binge.

We made shrunken apple heads. Really a pain in the ass to make and after 7 hours in the oven and three days drying they were still wet.

Hus got a little angry with me the night before the party because he is not a fan of Halloween. Don't worry, it looks like more blood than it really was.

What are you doing for Halloween?

Saturday Sounds 16 or 45's Were the Best

Since as early as I can ever remembering listening to music, my taste has always been eclectic. Of course my all time favorite music will always be Alternative/Punk rock, but I also enjoy some Classic Rock, Heavy Metal, Speed Metal, New Wave, Disco, Techno, Electronica, Reggae, Hip Hop, Top 40, Oldies, Torch Songs from the '20's, classical and Big Band music. Phew! I'm sure at this late hour (1am), I am forgetting some. The only music I really can't seem to ever like is Country, Folk, Jazz or Blues, except for the Nick Cave type Alternative Blues. There are so many labels now for music, I can't keep up.

I remember when I was about 7 or 8 years old my parents gave me my own record player and radio. I listened to all kinds of music. Sappy love songs by Bread and Nilson, sweet soft rock melodies by Shawn Cassidy, classic rock songs by Blue Oyster Colt, anything I liked. Do you remember when radio stations would play the same song everyday at the same time? I would turn the radio on everyday at 7pm to listen to BOC's Don't Fear the Reaper. I think I was nine.

My best friends older sister always had the best records. She had hundreds of 45's with the best and most popular songs of the day. Songs like Seasons in the Sun, Billy Don't be a Hero, The Night Chicago Died, All by Myself, Angie Baby and on and on. I used to beg my friend to ask her sister if we could listen to her records. I liked the 45's the best. What's more perfect than being able to just buy the one song you like? Now you have to spend $20 for a CD that might only have one good song on it. I listened to Don't Give Up On Us by David Soul over and over even after it was all scratched up.

In second grade I remember (don't know why I remember this), arguing with my friend Billy over which was a better band Queen or Kiss. I thought Queen. Still do.

The song in this vid was one of my very favorite songs. I thought it was about a girl who drowned and it made me sad to listen to it. It was years later I found out it was about a dog. Hey, I was only 8!

More Life in Vermont

1. Lainey-Paney mentioned in her comment on my first "Life in Vermont" post, that people in Texas have guns. This is true in Vermont too. Mostly people just have rifles or shotguns for hunting, but I do know some people who have handguns. I even know a woman who carries a handgun with her when she goes on a walk with her kids through the woods near her house. Ya, I think she is crazy, I only carry my pepper spray.


2. People out in the Boonies of Vermont can still be robbed. The house in the following photos was just burglarized last week. It happened during the day while the woman who lives in this house was away. Allegedly the thieves stole guns and prescription medications.I took these photos from my porch.


Six months ago another woman, who lives on this same road, was robbed. That time the thieves took a coin collection and prescription medications.
I now take my "good" meds with me when I leave home.

3. Some roads in Vermont change the speed limit willy-nilly every mile or so. The speed limit can be 50mph then 35mph, back up to 50mph, down to 25mph then up to 40mph,all within a few miles. Of course there are police who know this.

4. I can drive 36 miles home from work at midnight and only see one other car on the road. However, while speeding seems like the thing to do at that time, there are occasionally cops waiting to catch me or the other car!

5. Dirt roads are not just for poor people. This house is my favorite house in our town and it is located on a dirt road. New houses are also being built on dirt roads. This house is on the market for just under 2million. I think it's a bargain because it comes with a huge barn, garage with apartment, over 100 acres of land and a beautiful view. There was a new house for sale for over 2 million in my town, but it burned down in a fire.

If I win the lottery, I'm definitely going to buy this house.

6. People in Vermont can get really really, kick your ass colds, like I have had for the last 16 days! I didn't even get out of bed until 1PM a few days and even then, I didn't want to.

Poor me.

Saturday Sounds 15 or Plop Plop Fizz Fizz

I've had a cold for a week. I feel like crap. I want to sleep all day and do nothing else. Of course I cannot do that. Damn, being a grown up sucks sometimes. I did take, what I called, a half of a sick day on Thursday and stayed in bed until 1PM and then sat on the couch blogging until 3PM. That was a great day.

Alka Seltzer Plus was the best cold medicine EVER! Then one day the FDA decided to take out a key ingredient, the only decongestant on the market that worked. Now everybody had to suffer, just because it occasionally caused a teensy brain hemorrhage in some people. It also was the best hangover med too by the way.

Now I have to sign my life away for a couple Sudafed.

What do you take for a cold?

Life In Vermont

Some things I've learned about life in the country while living in Vermont.

1. There are people, mostly men, in Vermont who grow beards in winter and shave them off in Summer.These beards have confused me more than once. I moved here in the winter so most of my neighbors looked similar to this photo of the actor of Tom Welling. Scary if you ask me.

The WINTER Look

In the spring, I would run into the same neighbors and not have the foggiest idea who they were. Several times I would argue with Hus when he would try to convince me that the clean shaven fairly good looking man we were just talking with was our neighbor! "But that guy looked like a troll." I would protest. (below photo also of Tom Welling)

The SUMMER Look

No I don't have any neighbors as hot as Tom but since I don't find beards of any kind attractive, any clean shaven version of a person is better than the bearded one.

I met Hus in the summer and thank goodness he does not grow a beard for any reason!

2. There is no automatic trash pick up, cost covered in taxes, in Vermont. You need to either bring it to the dump yourself or pay a small fortune for a trash removal service. Or, you can do like I did in the beginning, and bring really small bags of trash to work with you and put them in the dumpster on your way in.

3. There are people who live in the boonies, like us, who have Septic Tanks. Gross.

4.Some people (my neighbor) walk their dog, cat and turkeys all at the same time.

5. If your neighbor owns a goat, sometimes it will come over for a visit and steal your child's sock. Of course it will be an accidental theft because the sock will stick to the goats beard when they smell your child's carelessly thrown on the porch shoe.

6. You can not hide in the country. My neighbors knew more about my husband before I did. My farmer neighbor noticed future Hus's red truck in my driveway when he picked me up for our first date, and before the date was over, my neighbor knew exactly who my Hus was. He knew where he came from, where he worked and whether he was an honorable man. Ha! (He was worried about me) Somehow via a crazy country neighbor grapevine, word had traveled an hour away to Killington, where my future BIL Dave, identified my future Hus to my farmer neighbors friend, who worked with Dave, just by his truck! I know, hard to follow, but true.

7. If you tell people you come from a family of pig farmers, they will believe you. Above BIL told my future FIL Chet, that I came from pig farmers. During our first meeting, Chet, with a straight face, asked me how it was coming from a family of pig farmers. I was just a little surprised and confused then noticed Dave cracking up in the corner. Dave had to explain to poor sweet Chet that it was a joke. OINK. We still laugh about that one.