I toyed around with a few ideas on how I might pull some old, dusty gems out of the archives here and perhaps give them a new life and some new blood to appreciate them.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but time and memory certainly do the same. I look back and think, wow, my posts were far better a few years ago than they are now. I’m going to work on that one, for sure.

Back to dusting off the oldies. I decided to take some of my favorite snippets from old posts and plop them down here along with a link to the original post. It’s like a blog buffet, click on what looks good.

“The boat was tipping and bobbing through the waves and were it not for the rest of the guests aboard I would have been more certain of meeting my maker that very day. Then I took a good look around me and realized that there isn’t a God in existence who would let me die with people this stupid.” – from “A Three Hour Tour”

“Imagine my surprise to find out that my bagless Bissell vacuum is a little bit more powerful than I had original estimated it to be. One instant I was cleaning out his “condo” the next instant there was a “shloooop” sound and he was gone.” – from “How I Almost Killed Sinatra”

“There should be a super-hero named the informer… her job would be to fly around and just make people aware of situations they wish they’d never heard of.” – “Exploding Soy Sauce”

“I think it is great for him to get together, occasionally, with friends / colleagues as it keeps everyone on the same page. Plus it means I don’t have to look over my shoulder and try not to beat him to death with my stapler as he hunts and pecks his way through the morning.” – “About To Kuh-Splode”

“Typically, when you go to make funeral arrangements, you make them with the funeral home where the body already is. By 9am the body had been removed and no one knew where it might be.” – “Laugh and Death”

“For hours we sat in the sun looking up and down the shoreline at our fellow fishermen, disappointment had settled over the lake not unlike the stench of “stanky bait” and possibly even more putrid.” – “The Legend of Stanky Bait”

There’s a lot of history when it comes to Nissans. From the early days in 1970’s with the datson 240z that eventually became the Nissan 240sx. To the continual evolution of the z line. 240z, to 260z, to 280z, to 280zx, to 300zx,to 240sx, to 350z, and finally to now the newest addition to the family, the 370z. As a huge fan of this family of cars, it has been amazing watching each model be appreciated still by so many in the streets. In southern California, you will still see many fully restored 1990 Nissan 240sx with some mesh drifting wheels on them. There has been a huge growth in fans in the world of drifting and Nissans are notorious to dominate this sport. You can normally find a whole parking lot looking like a car gallery of Nissans lined up. Every so often you will see a few other car makes, but majority would be Nissan cars.

You don’t need to be a race car driver to be in a Nissan. There are dealerships like fontana nissan that offer amazing deals on cars for everyone. They have vans, cars, trucks, and supercars like the Nissan GTR.

There is also another wonderful dealership in Southern California. If you are ever in the area, make sure you check out riverside nissan. They have a wonderful staff that will help you every step of the way.
They also have a beautiful showroom and a huge selection of cars to choose from. They always give you a great deal even if your credit is not the greatest. Nissans are known to make some amazing cars. You can continue the heritage of being part of the Nissan family. There’s always a car for everyone at Nissan dealerships in southern California. Nissan has been around for a long time and they are not going anywhere anytime soon.

Guest post brought to you by Riverside Nissan & Fontana Nissan

My kids have grown up around a wide variety of music. Everything from old standards to jazz and big band to rockabilly, country and Bob Marley. I’m a die-hard Harry Connick Jr. fan and I love Frank Sinatra. My husband is an old school metal head and it’s no secret that the whole family loves Queen and Zeppelin. But, I was born and raised in Bako and my grandparents listened to Willie Nelson, my grandpa was a big Vince Gill fan so I have an affinity for country music. I think unless you are hell-bent on resisting it, that country kind of gets into your blood around here, just a bit.

Over the last year my Kate has gotten into country music and not only is she diggin’ current cutie pies like Blake Shelton (especially Blake, she’s been on a die-hard crusade to get Blake’s attention on Twitter for months), Keith Urban, Billy Currington and Brad Paisley, but she’s even pulled out a few of her mama’s favorites too. Nothing cooler than seeing your daughter singing along to Lorrie Morgan or kicking back listening to David Lee Murphy. Even better is to find out that songs she loves by current performers were written by guys I loved back then. And, she loves George Strait… the really old stuff. She’s also a big fan of Willie Nelson and I think her great grandpa would be pretty proud of that.

We spent most of the summer with the stereo blaring over our home made Bocce Ball court the playlist hopping from Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, stuff my grandpa loved to Jason Aldean, Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney and tons of Blake Shelton.

I wasn’t too surprised when Katie begged for tickets to see Blake in concert this March at our local concert venue, Rabobank Arena. Santa bought Katie and mom tickets and for Katie, a membership in the fan club… that’s right, my girl is an official BS’er.

In case you are interested, these songs are topping our play list currently:

Honeybee

People Are Crazy

Take a Back Road

Chicken Fried

Out Last Night

Dirt Road Anthem

That Ain’t My Truck

Party Crowd

I cannot stand clicking on a video of a PREVIEW of an upcoming episode of a show I watch only to find a commercial before the preview. A PREVIEW is a COMMERCIAL. So now, we have commercials FOR commercials? This sends me into whirlwinds of pissed off that I can’t even begin to describe.

For what it’s worth? TV Squad used to be one of my favorite sites to visit daily. I loved the reviews and recaps of my favorite shows. Then, Huffington Post took over and ruined it. It’s a mess. I can’t find anything I like and it looks just like the rest of Huffington Post, which is to say, an ADD sufferers DREAM.

TV Squad isn’t that big of a loss considering it routinely did something else that is a pet peeve of mine… auto loading video clips. If I WANT to watch the video, I know where to find the play button. I don’t need you to play it automatically so it competes with the current Blake Shelton or Billy Currington song I’m playing.

On a mostly unrelated note, ne of the most tedious, boring tasks is photo scanning. I don’t have the patience to screw around with a scanner and wait for it to go back and forth over my picture, document or whatever. I have even been known to just take a picture of a picture just to save myself hassling with that stupid scanner.

No joke.

This brought to you by Friday nothingness. I doubt this will be a regular occurrence around here but… you never know.

I spent much of 2011 going through various transitions. I guess every year has transitions and changes but 2011 was fairly significant for me. I’ve struggled with blogging for the past few years and it seems like every time I think I’m finally done something pulls me back here. I’m just not quite willing to give up my little spot on the ‘net yet.

For so long I’ve kept things very quiet and private around here (and Facebook has not helped this either ) because there are people that are no longer in my life and I don’t want them having the privilege of this tiny window to peep through. The problem is that I’m me and what made blogging so much fun from the start was being me. When I felt the need to circle the wagons and close the blinds I didn’t know how to keep blogging when my blogging has always been based in the off-beat antics of my family.

I was discussing this with Katie the other day and now that she runs her own website she has a better idea of where I’m coming from. I’m finally reaching a point where I realize that my children are who they are, in part, because of who I am and it’s okay to take credit for that. My daughter is absolutely amazing and is wise beyond her years sometimes. She also has this incredible backbone and deeply rooted ethics that I really respect. It was no surprise when her thoughts were very simple, “Screw what anyone else thinks, either get back to doing what you do or shut it down.” I’m not sure what else I could have expected from the girl whose email signature reads:

“There’s so much good in the worst of us,
so much bad in the best of us,
it never makes sense for any of us,
to criticize the rest of us” -Amy Grant

I think I still have a few more posts percolating in the back of my mind, I just have to figure out how to get them out. It seems I’ve been shut down for so long that it’s harder to find the words than it used to be. No worries… my husband would be the first to tell you that I’m never at a loss for words for very long.

If you get a second, Follow my blog with Bloglovin.

It seems everyone is moving either due to the economy or well, mainly due to the economy. If you are faced with a domestic or international move you might want to look into ShipSmart.

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Good luck and Happy Moving!

If you aren’t moving but would still like to save money on your home, check out a VA refinance.

That bit of ridiculousness was brought to you by me, courtesy of Katie who has played it roughly 8 billion times and turned lines from it into the most obnoxious earworm on the planet. I swear. Personally, I thought it was just “okay” the first time I saw it. What made it funny was our good friend, Nate, who would recite lines in response to completely unrelated conversations.

Which, brings me to my next thought, I know what you’re thinking out there, oh yes, I really do. Something like:

“Zomg. She never blogs anymore and when she does it’s this cheesy drivel or nonstop talk about fishing and OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG… that SUCKS.”

Indeed.

Why you’d almost never know that I am a huge fan of Russell Brand as a stand up comedian (Arthur, sucked out loud, I’m afraid) and that I really love a good dirty joke, would you?

*seagulling*

Bwahahahaha.

Nope, around here it’s all glitter and unicorns and ridiculousness.

You see, the interesting happens when I am safely ensconced in my Facebook tower of magnificent ivory glory. The interesting often includes uninhibited snarky, bitchy rants and yes, the occasional tipsy utterance that even then is safely relegated to only a few eyes on a very exclusive list. Said list is fairly tough to get on, I either have to know you very well or you have to happily imbibe on a regular basis.

The number of wonderful souls who actually fit into either category is far too small.

I was watching Jim Jeffries (a standup comedian from Australia that my darling, Nate-R-Tots turned me on to) the other night, look him up on YouTube only if you have a legit sense of humor and are not a prude of some sort. Sadly, THAT list is far too long! Nevertheless, you’ve been warned.

Anyway… *sigh* he has a great bit about how you just can’t trust people who don’t drink. Lord, isn’t that the truth? You really can’t. Most of the people I adore most imbibe now and again. Now, I’m not talking about sloshing around fully-loaded all the time or full-blown alcoholics! I’m talking about people who know how to loosen up and have a good time. If you can’t manage that… well, get on with yourself then and no, don’t give me the old stink-eye because I enjoy a lovely pint of Stella Artois or Peroni with my pizza on Friday nights.

or a gorgeous Modelo with my chile verde.

or a cold, dark Guinness on a chilly winter evening.

Time and place, people. That’s all I’m saying.

Time and place.

I continue to be impressed with how far manufactured homes have come. Depending on what part of the country you live in they are either an affordable options or a major financing obstacle. If an evaluation is necessary then they have to be compared to other manufactured homes, you can’t compare a manufactured home to a traditional “stick-built” home. Which means you have to plan on putting your manufactured home in an area with a lot of other manufactured homes.

Which means that, at least here in California, you might want to plan on living in a more remote area like somewhere up in the mountains where traditional construction costs are high because you have to truck everything in and it’s not as easy as it would be in a regular city with free ways and wide streets. Manufactured homes become a more reasonable and affordable option.

I spent a lot of time going through a website for AZChampion the other day and not to be too redundant but, I was impressed at how far they had come. It’s amazing to see modern manufactured homes that don’t even look like manufactured homes at all! Granite counters, tile, etc.

Around here there are many families who have mobiles homes parked on land up in the mountains or over at the beach. Considering the beach is about an hour and half drive and the mountains are about the same it makes for an easy escape from the God awful heat we endure around here during the summer.

I love the idea of having a cute, manufactured home tucked back into the woods somewhere with a lake nearby. I love the idea of it being a weekend getaway and eventually a retirement retreat.

We’ve looked into doing something like that I think it’s a realistic possibility for us to pull off in the next few years. I love the idea of packing up and disappearing for a weekend without having to worry about hotel reservations or whether the camp ground has really clean bathrooms and showers.

Guest article today – typically I find insurance in general to be a snore inducing topic but the older I get (and the older my husband gets – ha!) the more my thoughts are turning to these types of topics. Here’s a little FYI for ya. Enjoy!

The Importance Of Medicare Supplement Insurance

Once a person reaches the age of availability for medicare they have many questions surrounding what it covers and even more questions about medicare supplement insurance. This is insurance provided by private companies, for a fee, that allows for gap coverage. It is a way to supplement medicare and prepare for the unexpected. The cost for medical care is high, and when something unforeseen happens, the need for gap insurance becomes critical. No one should take the chance.

There is no reason to not be prepared when you arrive at retirement. Still, many have not put back enough, and some of those that did were hit hard by the economic crises that has affected the entire globe. Nevertheless, medical expenses remain and occupy a large portion of the budget every month. When something unexpected happens supplemental insurance can pay for itself many times over.

So the issue is not really whether or not to purchase this insurance but rather what type to buy. There are a number of choices that vary in a number of ways, so the purchaser must be thorough in their research to make certain they understand these differences in an effort to obtain the supplemental policy that best suits their situation.

In fact there are twelve plans available, even though some are not options in certain states. Some refer to these plans as something called Medigap insurance. Prices and benefits vary, and for those that are not available in certain states there are other similarly priced options that provide the same level of benefits.

One thing of importance to note is that the benefit these plans offer are the same from one company to the next, however the premiums are frequently very different. Understand that paying more does not equal more benefits for a given plan. Even the process of making a claim is the same. There will surely be salespeople who indicate otherwise, however the law overrides their sales pitch ever time.

On the first of January of each year, adjustments are made to the price of the premium as a result of inflation. Because the benefits through a supplemental plan follow those of medicare, the premiums for the supplemental plane will increase for this reason every year.

Premium prices are set for Medigap policies in three different ways. The first is called attained age, where premiums typically increase every one, three, or five years, and this is in addition to the cost increase as it is adjusted for inflation. The second is issue age, where cost is based on age at the time of enrollment. These premiums do not increase with age, however they are adjusted every year on the first of January. The third community-rated. In this case, everyone in the same geographical area pays the same premium.

Clearly there are many options along with a number of pitfalls. Still, with a little research there is a plan available that can meet anyone’s needs.
Medigap and Medigap plans are talked about a lot today. If you would like to get a low cost medigap plan, then we can help you with it.

Source: http://www.articlewood.com/3104/the-importance-of-medicare-supplement-insurance.html More information on life insurance for senior citizens found here.

Upon review of my mailbox this week I found a parcel from the always amazing, Chickie at SkitteringThoughts.Com. There is nothing like stretching out your birthday with a surprise package. Last year I sent Chickie antique pickle forks. It’s a long story and would only make you shiver so I won’t elaborate further except to say that those pickle forks resulted in this:

“Beware the Picklefork of Doom” t-shirt, because it makes us laugh… a lot.

Thanks to Chickie I have acquired an addiction to bath bombs and subsequently so has Maggie which is why “Santa” put Neopolitan ice cream and birthday cake scented bath bombs in her stocking this year. Otherwise, she would have raided my meager stash since baths with bath bombs are nearly an obsession with her.

I’m always checking in with Chickie to see where her latest “go-to” stop is for bath bombs. She turned me on to a really great website, BaubleBath.Com. Which is why I was stoked out of my mind when I received this:
How cute is that? I think Chickie is rubbing off on me a bit because I waited until later in the evening and curled up in bed with this pretty package and really took my time opening it. I could smell the contents through the wrapping!!! Citrus and hints of lavender teased me from inside, it was too much and the anticipation was killing me! Once opened, it was like Christmas/Birthday all over again!

I was so excited I almost forgot to take pictures!!! Hand made soaps!!! Oh! And, that jar? That would be a scrub that is supposedly “Sunshine” scented but I swear to you right now that it smells exactly like the orange popsicles I used to get out of my grandmother’s freezer!!!! See the bath bombs tucked in there? I’ve had to hide those because I think Maggie already used hers from Christmas.

Nothing beats a hot bath with one of these handmade bath bombs. Seriously.

Thank you SO much, Chickie! You made my birthday AND you also managed to stretch it out into the next week! YAY!!!!! And, sadly – it beats the hell out of antique pickle forks.