I love suckers. Partly becuase they are candy, but take so long to eat, it's like you get so much more bang for your buck - or calories as it is.

I loooove anything cinnamon flavored, so when I saw this sucker at the local Pine and Fancy store - that's a store that sells unique, retro and just plain weird candy, by the way - I HAD to have it.



Actually, I first had this sucker about a month ago, but when we went back there on Friday to pick up candy rocks for a cake I need to make, I picked up a handful. This is the last remaining sucker, and that causes me a huge amount of sadness.

They are SO hot that I cannot lick it for long without seriously regretting it later, so the sucker lasts me about two days, which is another bonus, as most cinnamon flavored things are so Meh, with barely any heat to them !

You need this sucker. Trust me. You do.

This morning my middle son asked me why I was taking so many pills. I laid them all out on the table and began to explain them to him. There was a womans one a day multi vitamin, two evening of primrose oil pills, one of St Johns Wort and of course, my allergy pill.

He wanted to know what they were all for and when I got tot he allergy pill he was shocked. I guess I've never told the kids I am allergic to Tigger and Smokey!

Until six months ago, the only vitamin I had taken was a prenatal one while pregnant, but after my last round of troubles my doctor started prescribing supplements and vitamins for me. He wanted my B12 up first, and from there it all just snowballed. I began looking online at different things, Orovo, Biotiva, antioxidants and others.

From my buddy Sheila I got a good lead and started taking St.Johns Wort just last week. I just got a new round of supplements in the mail and have a bit of reading on them to do,but I plan on starting them very soon. One is supposed to help boost the immune system, and the other is to help reduce cravings for sweets and give me added energy.

What vitamins and supplements, if any, do you take?

A few days ago my mouse began to act up. When I would try to click, it would take one or two clicks to get it to register. Then the wheel part went, the scrolling bar thing. I really miss the scroll bar!

I think the mouse I am using is about five or six years old, and It has not treated harshly, I do not drop it, and I use a mouse pad, so why did it die? I will have to get a new mouse next weekend when we go shopping, and I think I might get some mousey life insurance at the same time!

Of course this laptop has a finger pad, but ohmygod I hate finger pads! As it is now, I have been fighting with my mouse, more willing to deal with having to make multiple clicks and not being able to scroll, than to try and deal with the finger pad.

I wonder. Do any of you work in offices where you use a computer all day long? Do you know if five years is acceptable for a mouse's life span or should I get a different kind than the one I have now. (Its a logitech optical mouse, 5v, 100mA if that helps) I keep thinking that a mouse should be able to keep clicking a lot more than this...

I just got some really good news. Check this out:
This is my banner for Stuff On My cat, where I will be a contributing author starting tomorrow. I cannot wait to see the post I sent in go live, but I am a bit nervous about the comments it will receive. I am not good with criticism!

I am determined to finish the first draft of the next SOMC post before the first goes live. I know that when faced with harsh words I tend to lose sight of the big picture and my writing tends to go down hill from there.

Wish me luck, in any case!

Dear Hershey company;

Long have I been a loyal customer of yours. In fact, my children's very first peanut products were off your shelves. But this Easter season, you have let me down. You are supposed to be a family company, I mean after all, you make CANDY! But what did I find on the store shelves this year? DRUGS. Drugs cleverly disguised as peanut butter eggs.

Have you any idea how hard it will be on me as the bags slowly empty? I demand full restitution. I will, of course, have to attend some kind of drug rehabilitation. This means time away from my family, along with the never ending laundry piles.

Why oh why did I have to find your eggs on the shelves this spring? What devil made me toss them in the cart thinking, "Hell, lets give 'em a try"? Now I am down to my last three eggs. And I know that when I try in desperation to go buy more they will be gone. Seasonal items. They are addicting.

Sincerely, Bluepaintred

Pee ess: How long until next Easter?

This is the earlies Easter that most of us have ever seen. The last time that Easter was this early, was 95 years ago, and it will be 220 more years until the next time Easter comes again this early. (In 277, however, Easter will come even earlier, on the 22nd of March, which is very rare)

I love Easter for the chocolate, as we are not a religious family, but another reason Easter is great is that it signals the beginning of warm weather. Normally the snow is almost gone, and the temperatures are consistently above zero.

This year, is different. The days are still cold and snowy, there is still so much snow in the front yard that after we finished coloring Easter Eggs with the children, I tossed the used egg dye into the snow bank to amuse the children.



I however am not even close to being amused at the continuing cold weather. In fact, it's to the point that I want to pack my sandals and shorts and check out some Outer Banks rentals as a last ditch effort to get warm!

In case you wanted to see our finished eggs, here is a picture of our masterpieces!

In the Us, taxes are due by the 15th of the month, but here in Canada we have an extra two weeks to file. Ours have to be post marked by the last day in April.

Instead of filing by ourselves, we go to the H&R Block in the city and have them do it. Sure you have to pay to have it done, but at least I can sleep peacefully at night that it has been done right.

last year was a huge clusterfuck in terms of Tax Readyness. I had next to no documentation saved, but we got lucky and had a very good Tax Auditor, He must have been in investor relations in a previous life.

He helped us, very patiently to estimate all the things we needed numbers for, and gave us a very clear list of things to save to help with this years tax time.

All of our receipts and papers we filed in appropriate places, so all that will be left for me to get ready, is to take a calculator to them and add up the numbers.

In past years I have dreaded the coming of April, but this year, I am more anxious about getting hte last of Blue Boys gifts in order before his birthday!

Check out this bridal lingerie! That sure brings back memories.


I know you cannot tell from this photo, but I was almost eight months pregnant with my eldest son at our wedding. ( I am hiding my face becuase my family is telling embarrassing stories at the Speakers spot)

When our wedding was over, we drove to a hotel for the night. There was a wasp in the car with us. and a LOT of balloons. POPpopPOP the whole time!

We were starving and called room service. I ordered lasagna, but they did not send a fork with it, so I did not eat it. i was too tired to attempt!

And then? On our wedding night? Instead of putting on something slight and sexy, we ordered a movie on the pay per view, The Mummy (the first one), and ..sigh. I fell asleep before the movie was twenty minutes in.

Over the years we have been married I have made up for my lack of wifely enthusiasm in a thousand (fun) ways! And, I have a full drawer, and half of another, just for lingerie!

Ahhh. Good times.

I like time lapsed videos a lot. Our camera has a setting in which we can make it take a picture every five minutes or hour or whatever, so if I wanted to, I could try my hand at it, but I really don't know what I would take pictures of? Any suggestions?

I guess I could take a time lapse video of a vegetable (fruit?) rotting :



Or maybe a time loss weight loss? Thats pretty cool both as a video and as a motivator for exercising!




And how about people being movers New York style?



Give me an idea!

I love my newest camera (not really that new, almost a year old). It is a 7.1 MP Optio W30 and it's waterproof, which is amazing when we are at the pool.

About the only issue I have with this camera is that when I take a video clip with it, it makes the files HUGE. For example, the last one I took was 2 minutes one second long. the file was 89MB. way too large for YouTube or any other service.

It was to the point that I wanted to head for the nearest directbuy and get myself a camera that would behave when I take videos. but then my buddy Nobody saved the day by sending me a link to a converter. Now my 89MP video is only 7MB.

You can view the posts I wrote that required the video here.

About two months ago my sister let me borrow her treadmill. its not an electric one, but it keeps track of calories and miles jogged and all that stuff. I was very reluctant to go out and spend 2 or 3 hundred dollars on a new treadmill only to have it end up a clothing rack!

At first we tried to fit it into the trunk of my car, this seemed plausible because it folds down and is very lightweight. But it didn't fit. Since my dad was going into my sisters place the next day to take her to the hospital for a minor surgery, he agreed to drive his truck and drop the treadmill off at my place on his way back home.

Unfortunately, it was a very cold drive and the treadmill is predominantly plastic. Smokey got so excited when my dad came in with the treadmill that she started jumping around and now, the face of the treadmill, the part that gives you all the readings is like this :



Here is the back of it, you can see where the plastic broke.



I should have remembered how brittle plastic can be when it is cold, so now I am on the look out for either a good sale on treadmills or a way to fix the broken piece.

My sister told me to forget about it, that it is no big deal, she said her treadmill has been collecting dust folded up under her couch for months, but it was broken in my custody and I feel responsible for fixing it!

(On the plus side, I have been using it three times a day for ten minutes at a pretty good pace {I can't go longer without dying, trust me} three times a week.)

Did you know that two dill pickles are only THREEEEEEE calories? 'Cus thats awesome! All this time I have been too lazy to check the jar - yet I felt guilty every time I snacked on one!

I love pickles.

****Please, for the love of God, do not comment just to say my eldest is only eight and I have lots of time to worry about this - I like to be prepared****

My Mother was an alcoholic. I am not sure if she realized she was, or if my dad did either, but even as a child and young teen I was aware that she had a disease. The fact that she would often drive to the next town or the town after that to buy her cases of beer and bottles of vodka at least point to the fact that she knew that the amount she was imbibing was too much.

At the age of 8 I was able to make a perfect Ceaser and pour a beer without it foaming.

I do not drink. Well - technically I do not drink. Last summer when we went camping, hubs and I bought a set of coolers -either 12 or nine, I cannot recall. I am unable to finish a whole bottle, and even after drinking half I am very buzzed. (I detest the "buzzed" feeling, by the way). In the past ten years I can count on one hand how many times I have had an alcoholic beverage, and that includes a wine toast at weddings. I am absolutely positive that one of those alcohol rehabs would have helped my mom, but before rehab can become a useful tool, first you have to admit there is a problem!

Now. I realize that my unwillingness to drink alcohol is due to the fact that I did not like who my mother was after a few beers. I also know that alcoholism is a genetic disease. If your parent is an alcoholic, chances are you will become one too - provided you abuse alcohol.

My boys know what alcohol is, we explained it to them this summer camping, I did not want them to sneak a sip of their dad's or my cooler, but when do I explain to them about a grandmother they never knew.

Seeing my mom drunk was a great deterrent for me, but they won't get that option. AND, Is the predisposition to alcoholism able to travel generations? Are my kids more likely to become alcoholics becuase of my mother (and my dad's father truth be told) or does it stop now becuase me and Hubs do not overly imbibe?

As much as I love living in a small town, the truth of it is drugs and alcohol are even more rampant among the children because of how little there is for them to do! He is eight now, but in two short years he is in middle school. I think the time to discuss the problem of drugs and alcohol has come, hubs disagrees. He wants to wait for our son to bring it up. I think thats waiting too long. if he does not know drugs and alcohol are bad, how will he make the right decision when they are offered to him?

So far, the only plan I have is to wait until this summer. hubs will have coolers for camping and at that point I will explain to the boys - hopefully keeping within the levels they can understand - the dangers that are in that bottle.

So. Any info you would care to share with me?

Cheese Whiz might add personality, but Smokey has taken her addiction too far!






Just kidding people, the jar was empty and I gave it too her to lick out. I repeat - there was very little left. I know that too much can make her ill, and I would never let her eat it if I thought it was too much for her! This is not the first time she has rinsed out a jar for the recycling you know!!

Sunday afternoon I ditched the children with Hubs and drove off to the city, Easter is coming up on us very quickly. I think I am too used to it being in April, so I feel very unprepared.

In any case I drove into the city and proceeded to spend over 70 dollars on easter supplies for the boys. I should have checked out WebbyPlanet.com for coupons but I forgot!

In case you are not familiar with Webby, they offer online as well as printable in store coupons!

Next up, Blue Boy turns six on the 23 of April, I will definitely remember to check for a coupon before I shop for that!

Does anyone know of a good flash site that offers multiplication table questions? Rm is really struggling to learn his tables and I am at my wits end trying to help him. So far we have tried flash cards ( Recited in order and at random) and writing them out repeatedly, but its not going so well.

They had a three minute quiz this after noon of the 0-4 times tables and he only got 17 of the 25 questions completed, but I know him, and most likly, half of those 17 are wrong.

Help!

Every two weeks we go shopping for our groceries. Our first stop is Costco (It is right on the edge of the city, and conveniently on the road we use to drive into the city).

Costco is a great place to shop, buying things in bulk is a great way to save money and it looks like the writers over at InvestorBlogger Dot Com agree with me! I was searching their archives and found a post about the Costco they have in Taiwan. Whats really neat about the post is the photos of foreign (to us at least) things you can buy at their Costco!

I'm just a tiny bit weirded out here. My Blog got mail. As in actual snail mail delivered to my mailbox down the street.


Over a year ago I bought the domain Bluepaintred.com, after that I bought this domain, where-was-i.com and even still, after that I bought bluepaintred2.com.

Originally I was going to make a new blog with the URL being the bluepaintred2.com, however, upon reflection I realize I just did not have the time to devote to another blog and had decided to just let the domain slide into oblivion.

And now I have this renewal (?) form for BPR2. It doesn't mention BPR or WWI at all, even though all three domains were bought on the same account.

I plan on ignoring it as I do not want to keep BPR2, but in all the time I have owned domains, I have never received anything in the mail for them, so why now, and why on an un-used domain?

It seems that Easter is right around the corner, which sucks, becuase we have done no preparing for it. Most other years my inlaws have been home and have watched the children as Hubs and I go shopping for them.

This year they will not be home until after Easter.

So the question is, Do I get dressed and head into the city now for some chocolaty shopping, or save it for a weeknight when I just need to "get out"?

But. I am board out of my skull NOW, so why should I save the trip? I'm so board I have done the dishes and a few loads of laundry already! (I never do chores on weekends, weekends are for family not dishes. Monday however...)

You know what? I think I will go shower and get dressed and if I still feel the urge to go out, I damn well will!

I am a BIG fan of the Stumble Upon tool bar. It's a great way to find cool things online. I "stumbled" upon this image here.

All the article had to say about the photo was this :

On April 3, 2007, a truck spilled liquid dye on a 1,500 foot stretch of I-495 near Boston. The highway was closed for a while and workers were trying to remove the dye with sanders. The highway was reopened once the dye was dry. The driver of the truck was identified.

Nothing about how long it took to get the dye off the highway or if the spill was caused due to driver negligence or anything! if you Google "Truck spills" and select the image function, there are pages upon pages of spills. To be fair, a lot of truck accidents are caused by inclement weather, but quite a few are caused by a sleepy driver or just plain stupidity.

A few years back, when we still lived in the city, we passed a big accident. A semi truck had been packed with hay bales, but they had packed them unevenly and they all fell off, some of them even hit other cars on the freeway! (no one was seriously hurt, thank goodness).

I imagine that due to the many many photos of truck accidents online, that a truck accident lawyer would make just as good money as any other kind of lawyer. (I am assuming lawyers specialize like that. I know there are malpractice, divorce, and family court lawyers, so it only makes sens that there will be lawyers that specialize in vehicular laws)

In any case. If you do not already have the stumble tool bar installed, what are you waiting for? it's free! (and a GREAT time waster!!)

let me tell you why.

Today is a beautiful day, Plus one, and everything is melting. There is little to no wind, so not only is the sun out, but you can actually feel it on your skin!!

The boys have spent most of the day playing in the huge snow hill On our street (There is a "snow dump" right by our house, its an awesomely huge hill!) I decided to go out and take some photos of the boys playing becuase the snow will soon be gone.

On the way to the hill I dropped my camera in a puddle. It was fully immersed in dirty slushy water for at least three minutes. You see, It was in my pocket and I did not realize it had fallen out until I got to the hill. Then I had to backtrack looking for it!

I know that my camera says it is waterproof up to 1o feet, but in the almost 10 months that I have owned it, I have not had the guts to try it out.

Good news people. The waterproofness works!

Edited to add a photo of the hill :



Please note the hight of the snow against the houses behind it!

• We watched Arthur and the invisibles - actually, we have now watched it thrice. its a very good movie.
• My nose magically turned into a faucet overnight. this is annoying as I have the accompaning head cold!
• Matching accessories - not always a good thing!
• I want a bath but I have to make supper.
• I hate cooking.
• a lot.

that is all

... And we are finally done painting.

We started Project Polka Dot last August, and just now finished - with the painting.

On Monday Mother Marnee will be popping the quilt top I fubar'd in the mail. She graciously agreed to fix it for me.

What happened is i took strips of material and sewed them together and somehow got it SO crooked I was unable to work with it! After I get it in my mail box, I will add the borders - which will have to be WIDE to compensate for the material removed to straiten it, and then put the rest of the quilt together.

Once the quilt is done, the room is done ... unless you count the TV still sitting on a table int he room and not on the wall where it belongs.

in other news I am getting quite high right now from the smell of antiseptic wipes. The dog pee'd in the hallway while we were painting, and I ALWAYS use the antiseptic wipes after mopping up.. just in case.