Is Your Lollipop Wild or Domesticated

Yesterday was Adventure Day.

Yes.

This is what my friend calls Thursday.  It is the day her and her son go out and about. Since I have been on vacation this week. I tagged along for adventuring in Ann Arbor.

I quite like Ann Arbor. Mostly because its full of strange granola-loving hippies and other weirdos.  In other words, my people.  I imagine the rent there is exhorbitant due to demand from all the U of M kids.

Ruth drove my car which was an adventure for her because she is used to a Jeep.  As her Jeep wouldn't start for some mysterious car related reason....I'm guessing the severe cold and a dead battery.  Since I didn't know where to go, she drove and I tutored her on the fact that my brakes are a little strange and that the right hand blinker on the front of the car doesn't actually work properly since the crash last fall.

The Meijer there is sparklingly clean.

I was enlightened on the prospect of gifting tacky ornaments to friends as a sort of Xmas White Elephant and such. Sounded fun.  We didn't find a tacky enough ornament at Meijer. I suspect a super tacky one exists at a dollar store near me or even at my workplace.

We continued on to a parking garage where Ruth was told by a machine that her debit card was unacceptable.  So, we used mine.  How infuriating to be rejected by machines. At least you can tell a human to fuck off. Machines, they just don't care.

Then we went to a lovely bookstore/new agey shop Ruth likes to go to and I also like due to its population of interesting people and things.  Also has a tea/coffee shop upstairs.  People routinely have animated conversations on all sorts of things like bad vibes, good vibes and how to banish/encourage the  various vibes.  Where else to get things like sage to cleanse the house? Or your car?   Jon and I burnt regular sage from the grocery store we were so desperate because of our bad luck, and hey, a tree fell on the house. That, weirdly enough, turned out to be A GOOD THING (as Martha Stewart was always saying) and helped us out a whole heap.

James had a toddler meltdown over a tiny, cute panda bear.  In the end, he got a new pet (Miss/Mr. Panda) after long discussions on why he wanted it so badly and usually when Ruth says no, he's fine, but, for some reason, he really NEEDED a panda bear. This panda was SPECIAL and needed a home.

We found a fairy door in the book shop where kids had left offerings of pennies and drawings.  If I were a fairy I'd want to live inside a book shop full of magic, coffee, books and tea.  Sounds perfect.  Also, its  warm in there.  The air outside would probably freeze a fairy solid in about a second.

Then, it was on to the Hands on Museum.  This is one very awesome place. Used to be a firehouse, which is also super cool.  After 5 pm admission is only $5.  Which is a good trick to know.  Here is the Link if Anyone is Interested.  I'd never been there.

I'm an adult who is kind of a big kid, so its a perfect place to go. 

James had an altercation with another kid over a garbage truck, which Ruth says is common, and for some reason that is a highly contested and treasured toy in the toddler room.  Toddlers are thugs.  Once a toddler has possession of a highly prized object, it is then their solemn toddler duty to lord it over all the inferior toddlers who do not have the object and follow them about the enclosure, taunting them.  I HAVE THE GARBAGE NOW!!!!!!

Also I observed some helicopter parents which I thought was hilarious.  One blonde woman in particular just hung within about four feet of her little girls at all times even though they were playing nice and not having an issue with other kids or toys.  Weird.  I didn't see an umbilical cord still attaching her to them, but it must have been yanking painfully on her uterus.  Otherwise, I saw no reason to be that involved in little girls playing quietly inside a  playhouse.

After an eventful trip, and taking several moments to convince James that the museum was closing and we needed to go home, we then headed to a yummy Thai eatery and had a very tasty meal. Very. Tasty. I think crack may be involved. Not sure. But it's my suspicion.

After James and his Panda ate a few noodles, we headed to the co-op and Ruth picked up a few things.  It smells nice in there. Kind of like an Indian (as in people from India and not Native Americans)  grocery store.

 James got a lollipop.  I asked him where he thought lollipops live and if his lollipop was a wild lollipop or a domesticated lollipop.  He answered that lollipops live in drawers.  A reasonable answer. Because his markers and paints and paper live in drawers.  So I figure in toddler logic all brightly colored happy things must live in the kitchen drawers of old farmhouses.  Yep. Sounds logical to me.

In Protest of Winter, Some Bright Colors

There is snow. Ugh.

Therefore some unrelated photos.

                                                Home Depot Orchid I bought for half off.

 

                                 Cute and Cuddly Emma Keeping me Cuddled While I had the Sniffles.

                         The Alian Outback at the Detroit Zoo. I didn't see any Alians.


I have decided to take a cue from my friend Ruth and rarely wash my hair. She's doing No Shampoo. I, am doing some shampoo.  But I bleach my hair sometimes (she doesn't) and I work around smelly tires and will want to wash tire smell off sometimes.   I think it will help with the dry winter hair and the bleach hair and will definitely help retain my purple color.

I need to figure a way to make at least $1800 a month and not actually go to a job. That would be great. I have spent a lot of time thinking about it this week since I have been off work on vacation.  No ideas that suited me were found, other than I really really want to do this, so....more thought is required. Where there is a will, there is a way, right?

My little brother's birthday was this week. Hope it was a good one, but I know he was at work, having texted him, and I doubt it was as good as it could have been. I miss him.

I went to the store for the last time in general normalcy. No normalcy will be had now until after the Xmas.  I felt sorry for the employees at Meijer as they are already being forced to listen to Xmas Muzak.

Jeep Tossing

Jon's Jeep got tossed again probably by some crack head.  Unless this guy/gal has a thing for spare oil, transmission fluid, or antifreeze, I don't know why they bother.  All doors but the driver door lock, which doesn't lock because someone side swiped this particular Jeep sometime before we bought it so it just won't lock.  I mean we KNOW it doesn't lock which means we KNOW not to keep things of value inside. 

I guess that makes this a RETARDED crackhead.

Which leads me to another issue.  I am a member of a web group. Another member was venting about someone (an adult) referring to her child as retarded. Oh, not in front of the kid and not even in person, over the web.  So the kid has no idea this has even been said, and, as such is not injured. 

The definition of the word RETARDED is someone or some thing that is physically, emotionally, or mentally stunted due to genetics or environmental factors.  Ummmm?  How exactly is that offensive?  It's like calling me brown eyed. Yup. I am.  So?

I find the argument moot and laugh all the way through the comments.  Maybe the kid IS retarded. So?  So what?  Maybe the kid isn't retarded.  So? 

The use of the word  "special" as a replacement for retarded is much more offensive because it hints at sarcasm, not actual fact. 

In other, more depressing news, Jon's first dog, Bear is dying due to renal failure. He may have gone by now. He was doing terribly at around noon.  Poor old man.  Fifteen is a long life, Bear. We all love you.  He had been to the vet on Friday and they prescribed some meds and put his odds at 50-50.  Today, he wouldn't move other than to turn his head to look at Jon.  He can't keep water down.  Poor guy.  I guess they were waiting to take him to their usual vet tomorrow if he makes it to have him put down.  I don't think he'll make it, but the amount of suffering in this world and the amount any one living being can live through is amazing so I could be wrong.

The Eighth of November

Jon's friend Levon came over last night to hang out. It made me wish he misprounounced things like the character of Ricky from Trailer Park Boys because then I could say he spoke Levonics.

Other than that, it's gotten cold and the dreaded window plastic is going up. 

I need to rake about a MILLION more leaves (or as many leaves as will fit into 3 lawn bags because I am NOT buying anymore this year).  Damn bags are a pain in my ass.  I hauled 9 of the damn things chock full to the curb last week on trash day and they were all soaking wet and partially disintegrating due to the lovely rain we've been getting.