I'm Depressed

I was feeling  more than a little blue today.

I miss my Dewey.

I know there are other kitties in my house that need love, and I love them all so much, but the loss of my Dewey hurts more than I thought.

I mean, this hurts like losing a family member. She was my baby. I fell in love with this little ball of fluff from the moment she wandered into my yard.

Then as I was leaving work, Tom Petty's The Waiting was on the radio.

I thought David Bowie's death hurt, but dammit, Tom Petty's death is much more painful. I think he was one of the artists I listened to when I was barely old enough to care about music. Tom Petty, The Beatles and The Monkees.

I still feel like part of my life has been torn away.

Today everything felt a little more heavy on my heart.

Homemade Meat Sauce

I'm quite proud of myself. I meat spaghetti sauce from scratch today.

Woo hoo.

I generally use jarred sauce, because it is cheap, but we are trying to cut down on the sodium, and we had a surplus of tomatoes to end out the season, so I thought, why not give it a try.

I did a lot of googling for a recipe that would work.

I basically used this recipe, because my mom told me that when she used to make spaghetti sauce she always used tomato paste. My spice mix was different. We like to season with season salt or Nature's Seasoning. Oh and one of my go too things in pasta sauces, including jarred sauces, is Salad Supreme.

Its a very delicious sauce and thankfully it got rid of some of the plethora of tomatoes we have in the kitchen right now.

Facebook Brings Out The Stupid In People

I have met a great number of good people through Facebook, however when I read comments on food sites or political sites...no even worse entertainment/pop culture sites, I know that there is no hope left for mankind.

We are well and truly doomed.

There was an article posted about how millennials don't want grandma's heirloom silver and china. This is really not always the case, but I made the mistake of reading the comments after reading the article.

Big mistake.

Someone commented that all millennials want to do is rebel, protest and kill unborn children.

WTF.

What the serious fuck.

I understand that there are many viewpoints out there. There will always be more liberal minded people and other more conservative.

But let's be serious.

Why do people think that women want to have abortions on a whim?

Its not a choice I'd ever want to make, and people that I know who have had abortions have weighed their options heavily.

Also, if you find abortions so abhorrent, wouldn't you rather have birth control readily available to any woman that wants it?

Plus, most people that are pro life tend to be anti-welfare..

Which to me is a catch 22, but I wont go there, because that's a whole different can of worms, but lets just say that low income single parents seem to be the one's you see on the news when their babies are abused or murdered.

So I'll leave that out there for you to ponder.

And now I'll just go and play a few Facebook games

The Ever Changing Landscape of Friends

I always see these poignant captioned photos on facebook about friendship, and how you can have a friend that you don't speak to in ages, but when you see each other again, its like time hasn't passed at all.

I'm sorry, that is not always the case.

Life circumstances change friendship. I know this because I'm 43 and single, no kids, except furry ones and a caregiver for my mother. I'm also a bit curmudgeonly or bitchy if  you so prefer. My scope of friends has always been small. It's dwindled down to almost zippo at this point. I'm sure the bitchiness is part of it, but, oh well.

As people move on with their lives finances change, dreams change and the things you had in common with people change. That changes the friendship too. Sometimes the friendship can still exist, other times they just dissolve.

Most of the friends that I've had over the years have nothing in common with me anymore. Some I still talk to, but that doesn't mean the closeness is there.

Maybe I've never had a real best friend.

I should probably stipulate, I was always a loner even though I always dreamed of being "Popular." What girl doesn't. I wanted friendship like "Friends" "Coupling" and "The Big Bang Theory" but it never happened for me.

It probably never will.

I think I'll go pet my cats now.

Politics...Meh

They say you should never argue politics or religion.

I totally agree on that. 

It is the main reason why America's 2 party system is broken beyond repair.

Both parties are at opposite ends of the spectrum and neither understand the word compromise. Followers of the each party believe the other side are all douchenozzles or whatever insult is in line for the moment.

I find this totally terrifying.

I also find that hate that seems to be in the hearts of so many to be frightening.

Again I see this on both sides.

Reading political pages on Facebook is just...OYE...it hurts.

There are times when I'm pretty close to 100% sure that neither party cares about everyday people. There's definitely a "Let them eat cake" attitude going on, and that is just terrible.

I don't know what can be done to fix it, except maybe getting more people to care about government and more so, to care about other people. Until that happens, I think we are screwed.

Remembering Tom Petty

I've been a fan of Tom Petty for ages. My sister listened to him, so I know his music was in my life very early on.

I can't even fathom picking a favorite song that he recorded. There are so many great ones; Refugee, American Girl, The Waiting, Even The Losers, You Got Lucky, Don't Come Around Here No More, Jammin' Me, I Won't Back Down, Free Fallin'....see what I mean? There are just so many great ones.

I consider myself lucky to have seen Tom in concert on the tour for Full Moon Fever. It was a fabulous show, marred only by the fact that they changed how the seats were set up at the AJ Palumbo center. (I never have had good luck at this venue) We thought our seats were 8 rows from the stage, but instead we were all the way at the back of the gym.

Boo hiss.

I had brought roses for Tom too.

Can you say that sucks?

Yeah, I had a small crush on Tom back in the 90s.

He won bonus points with me because of his friendship with George Harrison. Anyone that hung out with George was ok in my book.

And now a few weeks shy of his 67th birthday, he's gone.

That's way to young to leave this earth.

And if you go to youtube and check out his last song at the show he performed on Sept 25th, you'll know that he still sounded great.

Tom...you broke on my heart when your's stopped.

~ Let's get to the point....let's roll another joint....turn the radio loud, I'm too alone to be proud

~

In My Life...I Love You More

Losing my Dewey has really brought me down.

We've always had pets, so I am no stranger to the loss of a beloved furbaby.

This one loss feels more painful.

When my Misty crossed the rainbow bridge, I felt the same way. She's the little grey kitty with my Oogie.  She was my baby girl too. The sweetest little thing ever.

Right now, I can't believe my Oogie is 15 years old.

They pass through our lives so quickly.  Dewey was only with us in the house for about 5 years, but she was outside another 2 and I was caring for her then. It is hard to believe it was such a short period of time. It feels like forever.

And now she's gone.

I miss her cotton candy fluff that got into everything. I miss her sitting on my laptop, which is slowly dying right now too. (That's another story though). I miss her stealing food and trying to help me cook. I miss her running and sliding through the house. I miss her little headbutts. I just miss her. She was the life of the party. I don't know that I'll ever get over losing her.

Starbucks....Meh

So I tried the Maple Pecan Latte

Its not a bad flavor, but it has no zing and for $5.35, my drink better have some zing. This had absolutely no zing at all.

I should have gone to Perked Up.

Everything there has zing and the people that work there are fun.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Starbucks, but I think they need to get on the ball and try to create some different coffee drinks.

My shop makes a fabulous bourbon caramel latte (sadly without real bourbon). Little City in Monongahela makes coffee soda, which is a very unique treat too.

There's nothing special about Starbucks for me anymore, except my rewards.

Plus Perked Up has good pastries and sandwiches..

And that was my ad for the day...I think I need my coffee now

I Miss My Dewey

My little orange ball of kitty cat fluff, passed away early yesterday morning.

I don't know that I'll ever get over losing this one.

Dewey was special, from the minute she showed up in our yard. She came with friends, one of which still lives with us. The other, who we called Creaminess, because he was orange and white, was hit by a car, before we could get him socialized enough to try to catch him.

This was 7 years ago.

She moved in 5 years ago.

She was my sweet Badoo.

I loved her with all my heart.

My dad called her Orangey and her fluffy tail was a thing of delight.

She loved spaghetti, corn on the cob, and potatoes. (Any kind really: fries, mashed, tater tots)

I like to think that she knew that she was loved for those years she spent with us.

She was a good kitty. You never had to worry about accidents from her. She would try to steal your food though.

I will love you always Dewey and will miss you forever...my sweet sweet Dewbeedoo

Walmart Sucks

I ventured to Walmart because there were a few things I needed that were way too much at Giant Eagle or that they just didn't have there.

Big mistake

Even though it was 80 degrees and sunny, everyone in God's creation decided to go shopping today. I realize that it is near the 1st of the month and a holiday, but really? People had nowhere else to go?

What I truly can't understand is how they have the registers set up.

Why the double check outs?

If you get an aisle that has both lanes open, it is absolutely impossible to get out of the damn store. What idiot thought that this would be a good idea?

And why would you have the lanes open that way when you have like 20 of them and you only have 25% of them (if that) open at any given time. Why couldn't they have 1 per lane open going from the grocery side of the story to the more department store side of the store?

Oh yeah, less stress for the shoppers.  We can't have that now can we? I mean if you don't walk out of the store hating humanity, than you obviously haven't been shopping at Walmart? Or you are lucky and live in an area where everyone is civilized.

(Today I saw a bunch of tattooed seniors with rainbow colored hair that was cool and traumatizing at the same time)

This is why I'd rather spend more money and shop elsewhere than shop at Walmart.

Starting to Care Again

Around the time my father got sick about 6 years ago, I really stopped caring about everything. I gained more weight than I care to admit. I stopped using much makeup or coloring my hair.

I look like hell and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I've been trying to get out and walk as often as I can when the weather will allow it.

But I just don't feel pretty anymore.

So today when an ad for Ipsy popped up in my facebook, I thought I'd give it a go. Hey it's only $10! Why not give it a go. I could stand to have some new makeup.  If you want to check it out, click here

Back in the 80s my mom and I belonged to Cosmetique but it was expensive and you didn't always get fun stuff.

The last beauty purchases I made were a flavored lip gloss and a charcoal and black sugar facial mask.

Yeah. I'm not a beauty junkie anymore.

Now 10 years ago...I was broke but buying Chanel makeup.

I guess I learned how to conserve, but I neglected myself for so long. I have to do something to change things.

Here's hoping this might help

I'm Gutted

The other day, mom and I were talking about my friend, Mary. I met her when I was in college and we had a sort of on again and off again friendship over the years.

Currently our friendship was off.

Now it is off for good.

I was trying to look up when her mother passed away, and in doing so I learned that Mary had also passed on Jan 7, 2016.

Words can not begin to express how bad I feel.

She ended the friendship over a post I made about Fox News.

Then she said I hated her mom, which was not true. Yes, her mom was crazy, and in a way that made those around her crazy, but I did not then or now or ever hate her mom.

That was it..

I don't think she could ever understand that I couldn't just go out to dinner then, because in 2012 my dad's health was already failing. I couldn't leave the house and I had to cook the meals for him and my mom, so doing dinner was just foolish. (Plus I hate Kings)

I keep thinking about all the places we went together. We went to Lancaster one weekend, and did a weekend trip to Atlantic City on Miss America weekend! I saw the show me your shoes parade. (It was truly one the most bizarre trips ever) Another weekend, we went to Erie and visited my niece Monica and her family.

There were good times, but politics divided us a lot.

I wish she would have been more understanding.

I hope she has found peace now. I hope she's forgiven me, because I have forgiven her.

What I've Been Up To

Sometimes its really hard to keep it all together, but I'm hanging in there.

I've been trying to get back into the swing of walking.  I'm up to 2 miles a day on the walking path near my house. (One day I may even start losing weight)

I've rediscovered my love for Nick Lowe's music.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading. I'm trying to work my way through most of the Hannah Swensen Mysteries, before she marries Hannah off to a guy that hasn't been in any of the other books.

I keep trying new recipes. My next foray into the unknown is a zucchini, cheddar and chive quick bread. Here's hoping it turns out edible!

I need to find a recipe for sweet peppers. Not sure if I want to stuff them or if there is something more interesting I can do with them.

Other than that, not much new going on here.

Stupid Photobucket

OK, so I thought I'd try to fix the broken image links which were hosted in my two photobucket sites.,

That lasted about 15 minutes as I tried to edit an old blog post from way back when. (Like back in 2002).

Nope it wasn't happening.

But that was when my blog had a different address, so maybe that was why I could do nothing.

I have a tendency to be a perfectionist, so knowing their are broken links on some of my blogs just really irks the hell out of me.

I think going forward I'm going to use very few images in my posts unless they are from my phone or something of the like, so I don't go crazy.

~sigh~

When It Rains It Pours

I could be talking about the weather, which pretty much has been quite damp this summer, or I could be talking about all the issues that have plagued me since April.

Let's see...2 of my cats have cost me near $1000.00, between eye and ear infections and a strange skin condition

Mom was back in the hospital at the beginning of this past week with afib

Then there's the work issue.

Its not related to me, but it has me stuck in the middle.

It seriously is making me want to drink large quantities of alcohol.

Oh and apparently photobucket wants you to pay for anything worthwhile so most of my photo links on all my blogs are dead.

Grrrrr.

I think its time to make that proverbial lemonade from all the lemons life has been tossing me lately.

Cupcakes and Coffee Oh My

My favorite place in the whole world...ok, maybe not the whole world, because I still long for some places in Atlantic City and Sugarcreek, OH, but as far as the Mon Valley is concerned, Perked Up Cafe is my favorite place to be.

First of all, all the employees are so nice and the owner is super sweet. That makes the shop so welcoming and wonderful.

The decor of the shop is adorable. A fabulous vintage look that's so cozy. It makes you think of a shop that would be featured in a cozy mystery series.

Secondly, everything on the menu that I've tried so far is delicious.

Soup?  Yum! Broccoli cheese is to die for and there was a mushroom orzo that was perfect too.

Candied bacon? YUM YUM YUM! (Candied bacon, is seriously one of natures most perfect foods)

Breakfast sandwiches? OMG YUM! It is so nice to see breakfast sandwiches that don't involve English muffins, and I really have no issues with muffins, but they are boring.

But let's talk about the cupcake. Cos Perked Up as the best pastries, I've found in a coffee shop.

The chocolate espresso cupcake is a coffee lovers dream. Its a little poke cupcake, because that icing that is a touch of coffee heaven, goes deep into the cupcake. There's also a pumpkin cupcake that will delight fans of the fall flavor.

Oh, I forgot, this is a coffee shop, so how is the coffee?

Kiss Starbucks goodbye. You won't need it anymore.  I have a drink that I adore, the Pretty In Pink. Its and iced raspberry white chocolate latte with a shot of espresso, topped with whipped cream and white chocolate and a raspberry drizzle.

So if you are looking to limit your sugar, well..I feel sorry for you, because this is a fabulous drink.

If you aren't a fan of sweet drinks, don't worry, there's plenty for those of you that just need a cup of Joe.

This is truly one of the best things to happen to Charleroi, in ages.

I'm Melting

This fat girl isn't cut out for 90 degree temperatures.

My house doesn't have central air, just small units in certain rooms.

Cooking makes the house hotter.

I'm tired. I'm miserable and I can't even go for my walks..cos well...I don't wish to die.

And now I have a clog in my bathroom tub.

Please just shoot me.

Cat Pictures

Birthday recap

My birthday weekend was pretty awesome this year.

I'm really not sure how that all came to be, but it was.

Friday night ....had drinks and appetizers with my sister at Red Dawgs and then saw Donnie Iris, which was cool, even thought it was only 2 songs.

Saturday I did some shopping, along with my usual laundry, got some cool clothes and discovered that our tiny Mexican taco stand type restaurant is awesome.

On my birthday, I went to the library's book sale and to Barnes and Noble and Trax. It really couldn't get much better than that.

Oh and pizza pretzels rock

I drooled over some pretty gorgeous flowers at Trax too.

It was really a nice few days

Its My Birthday and I'll Cry If I Want To

I want to talk about Doctor

I watched the finale of series 10 of Doctor Who and I'm absolutely gutted. I have a tendency to cry at the end of Doctor Who series, especially when a Doctor is departing.

I cried for the 10th Doctor..I cried at the Day of The Doctor for everyone, I cried for 11, though I wasn't fond of the episode, but for The Doctor falls, I started crying early on for 12.

See, I feel like 12 has got the short end of the stick in his brief tenure as The Doctor. Peter Capaldi was so brilliant in his curmudgeonly incarnation of the time lord, but he was saddled with the worst companion for 2 out of his 3 series.

Clara Oswald and Danny Pink ruined things for him, rather than making the episodes better. Sure Jenna Coleman is a beautiful girl and she was ok with The Eleventh Doctor, but saddled with a mature, not classically handsome timelord made her unbearable.

Twelve deserved a companion like Sarah Jane Smith, someone smart and inquisitive.  Bill Potts was a nice addition, but I still wanted more. Oh and I don't care what anyone says, I loved Nardole. (Matt Lucas is fab)

Deep down I think River Song or Missy would have made a fabulous companion for 12 for a complete series.

By the time the episode was ending, in a nasty cliffhanger way, I was really looking for tissue. I just don't want Capaldi to go and the ending....AH...just AH...I want to see the Christmas episode so badly, but I don't want 12 to regenerate.

I hate when tv shows leave me gutted like this.