Here's some Christmas Creep for you.
Bah Humbug:
Buy Nothing Christmas (Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping)
Alternatives to cut Christmas Trees
Something for your Festivus needs
Dear Santa letter generator (NSFK) Not safe for kids
A Santa by any other name:
Holiday Helpers:
The Yule Cat, Jolakotturinn
The Yule Goat, Julbock or Julbukk
Other:
I love the OUTDOOR GIRLS series books by Laura Lee Hope.
I found two (non-fiction) books that might have been read by the girls and boys of Deepdale, had they (the boys and girls of Deepdale I mean...) been real:
On The Trail, An Outdoor Book for Girls
and Camping for Boys
If I can't live one hundred years ago - and I do wish I could, I can still wish my friends and I could take a month off and camp out like this:
What's the oldest article of clothing you own? Bonus points if you show us a photo!
There goes Vox, reading my mind again.
I have a pair of gray sweatpants I bought right before I moved to California from Colorado, that was 11 years ago.
They now stay up with the help of a safety pin since the waistband elastic has long since gone and they never had a string. And there is a big air-conditioning run/rip in them right up the back seam.
I have another pair of sweatpants, but I always reach for those old ratty ones I bought while shopping with the only friend I made in Denver... May be that's I why I keep hanging on to them.... one good memory in a 9 month* long nightmare.
*9 months was the time I was in Denver, May to November. It's almost time for my get the hell out of Denver Anniversary. I got the hell out on Thanksgiving Day, and I've never been so thankful to leave a place... but I still wear those ratty sweatpants all of the time.
If you read my blog, I must insist you turn your speakers all the way up to 11 and rock one of these in your living room. I don't care who's watching.
But you know what, when all is said and done - Cheap Trick will ALWAYS win out as my favorite band.
Do you like stories about twins? About Scotland? Then you might like THE SCOTCH TWINS (1919) by Lucy Fitch Perkins. It made me clap my hands with excited anticipation many times. I can't explain why very well... I knew what twists were coming but it was told so well I felt like I was a fly on the wall the whole time. You know what's coming, but you aren't quite sure that's exactly what IS going to happen....
There are other books in the TWINS series, but this great little easy read was an immense delight.
Here's a sample from the Gutenberg E-text:
"At the very moment when Jock and Tam came flying over the fence and down the hill like a cyclone after the rabbit, Angus was kneeling beside the brook to get a drink. His lips were pursed up and he was bending over almost to the surface of the water, when something dashed past him, and an instant later something else struck him like a thunderbolt from behind, and drove him headforemost into the brook! It wasn't Tam that did it. It was Jock! Of course, it was an accident, but Angus thought he had done it on purpose, and he was probably the most surprised as well as the angriest man in Scotland at that moment. He lifted his head out of the brook and glared at Jock as fiercely as he could with little rills of water pouring from his hair and nose, and trickling in streams down his neck.
"I'll make you smart for this, you young blatherskite," he roared at Jock, who stood before him frozen with horror. "I'll teach you where you belong! You were running after that rabbit, and your dog is yelping down a hole after her this minute!" He was such a funny sight as he knelt there, dripping and scolding, that, scared as he was, Jock could not help laughing. More than ever enraged, Angus made a sudden lunge forward and seized Jock by the ear."
I posted about Flea Treats awhile back, let me update you on my experience.
The best thing I can tell you about the FLEA TREAT method of flea control is that:
1. You have to be PATIENT and CONSISTENT.
2. It took 4-6 weeks for it to have the desired effect on my cats. However, they were infested with fleas. I thought it wasn't working and even called the company to inquire WTF? I spoke to the owner and he encouraged me to be patient and consistent. I stuck with it and found it really does work IF you are patient and consistent. I've had success with 2 indoor/outdoor cats for more than one year on this program of 2 treats a day.
2-1/2. You MUST give it to your pet EVERY DAY and at the same time of day if you expect it to be effective.
3. I only have 2 problems with Flea Treats, and they're really only in my head.
3A. My biggest problem with them is the size. I feel like I have to cut them in half to make them more bite sized. It's not like they're so big the cat'd choke on it or anything, but they are hard treats not soft treats and my cats seem to prefer the bite-size it so I do it. I had a pill cutter from forever ago, but they are only like a buck at the drugstore.
Let me preface number 3B with: You do not have to put it in their food. You can give it to them as a plain treat, but like I said above they're hard treats not soft. My cats have only ever eaten soft treats so they are not at all interested, but they eat crunchy food so in the dish it goes and they eat it like any other food morsel.
3B. My other problem is I have two cats that eat together and I now have to watch them eat and make sure they ate the treats - because if they don't eat their treats and walk away the other cat'll come over and eat out of the other's dish thereby getting the other cat's dose. If you only have one cat, no problem.
4. It's more than cost-effective.
5. Funny thing... my cats KNEW what the Advantage/Frontline package looked like, and when they'd see it they'd [expletive deleted] RUN from me. I kid you not.
My one cat had his fur burnt off and skin made raw from one of those insecticides. That's how I discovered FLEA TREATS. It broke my heart to know I was putting something that evil on my cats, so I searched the internet with terms like natural and chemical-free and found Flea Treats.
Anyway, I literally had to chase them down, hold them down and force it onto them. I felt like I was honestly physically abusing them. I am not exaggerating for effect - I felt like I was actually harming them. And I had physical proof with his fur gone and skin broken open, red and raw. How could I conscientiously not at least TRY this thing called FLEA TREATS? I had nothing to lose but the cost of return postage to send the bottle back for a refund.
What would you rather? A poisonous toxic chemical solution poured on your skin OR a tasty * liver flavored B vitamin treat to eat?
*Ok, I don't really know if it's tasty, but they eat it so
I guess it is. It's gotta taste better than [company redacted] 's Napalm in the Morning.
If you could only drink one beverage for the rest of your life (not including water), which one would you choose?
Cantaloupe Juice!!
This is the best photo representation I could find of how delicious cantaloupe juice is, but a picture is NOT always worth 1000 words.
You can't possibly know what you're missing...
Industrial Revolution
Romanticism 1850-1920
Gilded Age 1865-1901
Reconstruction 1863/5-1877
Progressivism 1890-1920
Machine Age 1900-1945
Interwar (Interbellum) 1918-1937/9
Nothing I could say would make this video (full screen) any better.
Be patient, it's almost 15 minutes long and cut into 3 parts on the same video.
If you could be any age again for one week, what age would you be?
Vox spies on people. They must. How else would they have known to ask this question?
I just said SEVERAL TIMES over the past three days that I am getting my hair cut like I had it when I was 11 because I just turned 41 and want to recapture a piece of my youth. Plus long hair makes my face look long, not a good look for me....
Vox must have spies following everyone around or they read my computer or something because sometimes - man, these QotD hit right on the mark. Just last night my BFF told me how brave I was to get this cut and we had the discussion about being an age from the happy past of our childhoods.
Anyway, I've had my VERY CURLY hair cut short in the recent past, but not like this - I never fully made the commitment to SHORT. I had a fairly safe all one length, chin length bob. The day before yesterday I had her cut it to the hairline and give me thousands of layers, like the old Dorothy Hamill hair cut of my youth. It looks cute as cute can be. It's super short, sassy and saucy. I love it. It looks just like this picture of me at 11, except SHORTER....
As a bonus for my neighbors, here's the whole photo complete with hot soccer coach named Roman, plus a shot 20 some years later of the spot where the photo was taken - look how the trees have grown!...
