Well, they work.

So, i have a guilty pleasure: Totino's® Party Pizzas.

so delicious, so bad for me.

I also have a to-do list as long as my arm, one item of which is, 'check the smoke detectors.'

This evening, those things came together beautifully.

there are many places to buy things in Austin, specifically things of the grocery persuasion. Generally i purchase those types of things at H.E.B., a wonderful store which i sorely missed when i did not live in Austin. However, sometimes i shop at FreshPlus, because it is close to where i work/live. My aforementioned guilty pleasure is satisfied at the Hyde Park Fresh Plus where the freezer aisle is the first thing one encounters when following the optimum store flow.

So I bought one the last time i was there, and decided to cook and eat it this evening. I am about to eat it right now, as a matter of fact.

The best way to cook a Totinos® Party Pizza is directly on the oven rack, and the detritus of past said party pizzas often falls down into the oven. Future cooking thereof creates smoke, lots of smoke, which, this evening, set off the smoke detectors which i have been meaning to check.

So, now i have a delicious dinner, *and* the piece of mind that accompanies knowing that your smoke detectors work.

i call that a win, win.

cough syrup cracker sandwich

Well, we had gone camping and Laura had a cold at the time....so being thrifty we took along a bit of cough syrup...don't remember why but at the time it seemed like a good idea to pour a little into a container.

Fast forward a week after we got back.....I am in my office and Chella comes into my room with a very strange look on her face.

"Dad, can you come to the kitchen?" she asks. We go in there and I see that she has been making herself a snack.


With that confused look on her face, she says, "Dad, that jelly tastes really funny."


Poor little girl had made herself a peanut butter and cough syrup crackers.



Lesson learned.
my lesson.

Theo Chavez comes home

Theo Chavez comes home
Originally uploaded by killy

Our first day with Theo was wonderful. His tail is wagging most of the time, he's comfortable on the couch and his pillow bed and he's already housebroken. He loves to cuddle and will howel with you when you sing.

He did a lot of exploring his first day and tired himself out pretty good. Last night, he slept all night in his pillow bed. We are looking forward to the coming weeks as he settles in, gets a little more comfortable with his surroundings, and comes to realize he's part of our family.

Please, let me have some cupcakes...

Please, let me have some cupcakes...
Originally uploaded by ultrakickgirl

Paóla dressed as Max from Where the Wild Things Are. I have to add the toes and the gloves first and then the thing is completely finished. I am so excited about it and am particularly proud of the whiskers I added. I accomplished the foot part by using some fluffy white house slippers I got at WalMart for 5.00 and sewing the legs onto them. I really wanted to make the buttonholes and everything at the front of the jumpsuit, but conceded to using velcro to close at the back. The buttons are there for show. I am also proud of the tail. I found the right fake fur at Joann's after they got a new fur shipment in. YESS!

Adolfo will be Astroboy for Halloween. I played with the idea of making him Moishe (Carol) from the movie, but he wasn't "thrilled" with the thought. He will be thrilled about Astroboy though. And I think the costume will be fairly easy to make and am excited about building the boots with foam and satin. Cannot WAIT!
Anyway, this is this.

7:22

Seven twenty two is a neat time. On a digital clock it sort of looks like a swan, or some other large water fowl. I noticed how neat it looked one morning (while declining to *officially* wake up ) and have noticed it since.

I have seen those digits twice today; once AM, once PM. They look nice at both Ms.

To the best of my knowledge this blog began in 1999. Blogger/Google has seen fit to remove four years worth of posts and the most recent data they have begins in 2003; a post which derides our friend Adolph. That bothers me.

I believe i will try to to track down the vanished posts and re-instate this blog using a WordPress install at http://starebox.com/.

Do no evil, my ass.

Well, 'evil' is a strong word. Maybe they should have said 'Commit no petty annoyances that irk the technically minded and chronically vexed', although you can't please those people.

Regardless, i have spent most of my day building an ad-site for a new Austin hipster playground. Soon i will move on to building a site dedicated to saving whoopers, or proclaiming the co-op lifestyle.

Either way, some things (such as the URL) may change, but i am trying to preservve our history.

In other news : my AC is out and it is going to be a warm night (80+º) in Austin.

How long is 'relevant' relevant?

[update]
I may have been wrong, and have unfairly maligned los Googler/Blogger. I still have not found the first post, undoubtedly a 'Hello world', style affair, but i did find this gem, beauteous as it is.

The Wayback Machine found a pretty wonderful Flash animation which was holding the site down back in the day. Interestingly enough, the first post TWBM could produce is this one, describing an event of which i have no clear memory. It may be the case, i say again, that i am being unfair to teh Googler/Blogger.

Total tangent, but when i attempted to access the Wikipedia article linked to the word 'teh' above *with* a trailing slash it barfed. Pet peeve.

Love me some trailing slashes.

Rescued Dog

Rescued Dog
Originally uploaded by killy

This is 'puppy'. He had been wandering around the house for the last few days. I noticed him in the front yard this past wednesday and asked him (politely) to please not poop in my yard. He gave me a brief, deep bark and turned away. He looked mostly well kept, didn't necessarily look like a stray - but then again, i don't know much about dogs. I figured he had just gotten away from someone for a bit and didn't think of it again.

He showed up in my backyard the next day. I went outside and said, "Excuse me," and pointed towards the missing board in my fence. He looked up at me, turned and carefully stepped over the bottom 2x4 and exited peacefully. He was too careful and i at this point i realized he was injured and most likely a stray. I didn't see him for a couple of days. It rained. It got chilly.

Saturday was a wonderfully productive day for me. I mowed the grass, i cleaned out the garage, i finally attempted to sweep the multitude of water oak acorns from my driveway. Overwhelmed, i decided to vacuum them instead. I used my shop vac to vacuum my yard. I don't think i'll ever rake again.

Then, standing in my yard was puppy. "Hey puppy. Where have you been?" He stood there. I put out my hand and he came carefully to me sniffed and licked my hand. He had been traumatized by someone, mostly likely a male. When Carol came out he went to Carol without hesitation. We got some dog food from a dog owner across the street which he ate quickly. The fresh water carol left out was lapped up just as quickly. As he ate, it was only then i realized he was skinnier than he should have been.

I didn't know what to do at this point. I didn't want to take him to the SPCA or the Humane Society. I didn't want him to be put down. I called my boss, a known dog rescuer, who just so happened to be shopping in the Heights. She came over 10 minutes later. She got out of her car and sat down on the sidewalk. Puppy came right to her. J put a leash on him which he accepted quickly and began to point things out:

You can tell by his skin he's been out for awhile.
He's been scrounging
He's paws are sore
He's arthritic
He looks like a Daschund / Basset Hound mix, it looks like.

Jeanne lifted him into her car with her doggy lift (a little velcro belt with a handle on it) and drove him home where, apparently, he slept most of the day. He is going to the vet this morning for an evaluation.

I hope these are not his last days. He was adorable.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Gracias Mercedes Sosa

Tool-usin'

Despite being one of the most routine automotive 'repairs' there is a simple pleasure in changing the battery in the Bronco, my poor, beleaguered baby.

It's everything good about car repair (making the damn thing work again) and none of the bad (in my case: bleeding, generally copiously).

After carefully ensuring that i had removed all tools/packaging/doilies/general detritus from the engine compartment i smartly took position in the driver's seat. Confident of my auto-repair prowess i deftly inserted the key and started the ailing vehicle. Despite the 287,000+ miles on it the engine *roared* to vibrant life, revived by the fancy, new (ninety dollar!) battery and the sweat of my brow. Pleased by the outcome i exited the cabin, crisply closed the hood, and proudly said, 'ta-da!' to the world at large, and to the cat who watched most of the interesting procedure in particular.

Easiest problem i fixed all day.

(to the careful reader : i have recently been informed that adjectives/adverbs are the new black so i have used them to full advantage)