June 16, 2007 by annadulcekelly.

I decided that hubby cannot piggyback on my homemade cards anymore.  It’s not that I want to be mean to him…I have other ways of achieving that.  It’s just that when I think about it, his folks only have 3 grandkids, 1 son and a daughter-in-law.  Whereas other people get boatloads of cards from their kids and dozens of grandkids and possibly great-grandkids, my in-laws only have the 5 of us.  Then of course not everyone gives a card all the time.  Someone almost always forgets to make or buy one.  So what’s giving them separate ones?  That way they have one more.  It’s not much but it’s 25% more than before, LOL.  Also, that’s not really fair to me either.  I make the cards, I write the message inside and DH gets to sign too…not happening anymore.  He buys his own.

Okay, the other thing…my desktop has 2 monitors.  One is my old 19″ LCD and then I got a 19″ widescreen LCD.  Now, my old one’s native resolution is 1280×1024, which is what I’m using.  The new one’s native resolution is 1440×900.  I must have killed a few millions of brain cells at one point because I forgot that my PC came with adapters to connect analog (VGA) monitors to the video card that has 2 digital (DVI) sockets.  I used one for my old monitor.  When I got the new one, of course it came with a VGA cable and I totally forgot that I still had one of those adapters left.  So I went and bought a DVI cable.  Well, for some reason with using the DVI cable, the resolution can only go up to 1280×720.  If I tried to get it up to 1440×900 I get a garbled screen.  So I thought, well, that was a bummer…and a rip-off.  I wanted 1440×900, and besides with it being on 1280×720, everything looked wider than they really were, and so the images weren’t that clear.  I thought that really sucked considering it’s a digital connection, not analog.  So one day it finally dawned on me (and I felt like slamming my head against the wall) that I wasted money on the DVI cable.  Today I dug out the other adapter that I forgot I had, and used the VGA cable that came with the monitor.  Guess what, 1440×900…the wallpaper never looked so good.  So I guess I’ll just keep using the analog connections with the digital adapters.  That seems to work perfectly anyway.

Well, tomorrow is another horrible Sunday.  I wish it would rain some more south of us so that we don’t get all that dust on the dirt roads.  Today was an exceptionally hot day.  Strange thing for me to say, it’s not as hot and humid as it can get back home.  But for here, yeah, today was terrible.  Time to stick to slacks and sleeveless tops.

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June 16, 2007 by annadulcekelly.

Well, this rant has been a long time comin’ or brewin’…your choice. I haven’t ranted for a long time and there’s just so much to rant about.

By now you’ve read the gist of the whole moving things to another room and not meeting deadlines, which seems to be the norm in this house. I don’t claim to be a very mature person but I think everyone else in the house has a lot of growing up to do, even the grownup.

Hubby didn’t want me to paint the ugly 70’s wood panel downstairs if I ended up setting up my craft room down there. And I wasn’t going to live with dark wood on the wall. It’s not even nice, like you see in some old homes, where you see the grain and feel a bit of it. The wood panels downstairs actually look painted to me, and the roughness of it, where it’s supposed to just show the grain…well, it just looks so exaggerated. And then add to that what kind of looks like chop marks. I think the previous owners did it on the cheap, pretty much like the outside of the house…lots of knots on the wood…guess what, they’re falling out.

Anyway, I didn’t end up downstairs, and I made sure of that after it was clear that moving the little princess downstairs was going to be behind schedule. Thank goodness for that. Now she’s planning to paint the walls tomorrow. I am eager to see if she’s actually going to paint the wood panels too, or just strip the wallpaper off the rest of it and then paint that. I don’t care. Judging from what I had to deal with in this room, it’s going to be another awful job. Not my problem. We can always change things when she goes off to college. And we will need to improve on everything anyway if we ever want to sell this house.

I held off on doing the dishes until I got my room. I got 2 weeks off of dishwashing. Of course everything piled up between washer loads, but that wasn’t my problem, and I didn’t really have a whole bunch to do when it was time for me to take over again. I figure, if what I want is taking too long, I could at least make someone else’s life miserable too. Misery loves company, right?

DH complained about feeling like the World Bank dealing with Third World countries. Princess had picked out a prom dress, and then she wanted something else. So she turned the first one in and got a second one. And then later on, she decided she wanted the first one after all. Ditzy. But then she couldn’t find the receipt for the second one. So she made an agreement with her dad (uh oh, trouble) that she was going to clean the depot 4 times really well, if he’ll give her $200. Being the sucker that he is, of course he handed over the money. Never mind that she has never ONCE fulfilled her end of the bargain anytime she got paid beforehand. She never finished the yardwork she got $100 for, she couldn’t even do the chores that SHE volunteered for for money. Does that not tell him something? She did clean the depot once…and that was it. I don’t really think that was worth $200 but that’s not my problem. He’s a horse’s ass sometimes, it’s unbelievable.

My neighbor 2 doors down, fairly new (moved in last year) don’t seem to know what a leash is. I have had to chase after my dog after she got away from the leash and collar, AFTER their dogs started getting her all excited. That happened twice, once after I was just getting better from spraining my ankle. They never pick up after their dogs either. I don’t think their dogs are with them all the time, and I do remember the guy saying something about dog shows. One would think that with them not having the dogs all the time, it wouldn’t be too much to pick up after them when they’re home. But NOOOO, let them roam around other people’s yards, let them poop there. Wonderful people…I should give them a gift…some bags and a couple of leashes. Or I can just try to camp out in the yard one time when I know they have their dogs home…make sure I have my camera with me, make a movie of it and go to the cops. As far as I know it’s illegal here to not have the dogs on leashes. I know the crap’s from their dogs…they don’t appear if the dogs aren’t around.

The worst question anyone can ask me…are you happy now? Especially after they’d just done something for me and they’re making such a big deal out of it. I will come up with something else that will make me happier. And of course it has an adverse effect on the person asking…not my problem.

That must be my motto these days…”not my problem”. It’s the only way to stay sane. I can’t worry about everything. I can’t worry about things that people bring onto themselves. I can’t worry about how dumb people are…I’m not a brain surgeon so I can’t do anything about that. And you’re asking, what can a brain surgeon do for a dumb person. Why, give them a lobotomy, of course…they’ll still be dumb but they’d be less annoying.

Also people shouldn’t ask me why I do things a certain way especially if it’s something they don’t want to do themselves. DH asked, one time while I was putting things in the dishwasher, why I put the flatware with the stems down. He always did it the other way, he said that keeps spoons from spooning and forks from…well, still spooning, I don’t think “forking” applies. I don’t really believe it. And my logic tells me that there’s more space on top, and the spoon/fork area of the flatware take up more space, so therefore they should be up. Also I am careful not to put the same things side by side. I actually arrange them so there’s no spooning of any kind. Well, DH doesn’t like being asked why he does things the way he does. No matter how nice you asked, it will always seem to him like you’re questioning his techniques and he gets defensive. So I thought I’d be like him for once. My answer was, because I’m doing the dishes. And I said it in a tone that said, you wanna take over the dishes, buster? Of course, as dense as he is, he couldn’t figure out why I got so nasty. I don’t like doing the dishes, and I use the least number of items…but I’m still doing it. So I think he should leave me be.

DH…otherwise known as Mr. Have-you-seen-my-glasses and also Mr. I-still-haven’t-found-my-keys-so-I-have-to-borrow-yours. He never puts things in the same place, if just to make it easier for himself. And if you misplace something that’s supposed to help you see…that’s just an all-time low. He gets so pissed when I sigh or shake my head but it’s really getting old. Someone his age should be able to keep track of a few key items…glasses, wallet, cell phone, keys. I told him he needs a purse. I’ll keep telling him that until he actually gets a purse and puts everything in it, or starts remembering where things are, or actually puts things in the same place all the time (not happening). At least he’s getting used to me being reluctant to help him look.

DH doesn’t like it that I have a lock on the craft room door. He thinks it’s pointless. I think, with everyone’s tendency not to lock the front door, it’s just a little additional measure, in case someone breaks in. Also, one time I went out, and when I came back he said he wanted to see how I was doing in my craft room (which I was still working on then) but the door was locked. And there, right there, is another good reason to have a lock. I don’t want people going in my craft room when I’m not around. It’s MY room. He has the sunroom and I don’t go in there while he’s in the middle of his game, or hang out there when he’s not there. I only expect the same courtesy.

I’m sure DH wasn’t too happy when I had a phone technician come out and get rid of the filter that only allowed the DSL modem to work with the phone jack downstairs. With princess downstairs and me upstairs, I didn’t want to leave the modem there. Yes, my new desktop can go wireless, but I didn’t want princess hooking up to the same connection. I don’t want to get in trouble because she got stupid, and I don’t want my computers to be linked to hers in any way. Of course now she’s not using her computer, because without an internet connection it’s useless to her. That’s not a bad thing…the less she uses it the longer it’ll last. These stupid brats will crash any computer they get their hands on.

Dumbass 3 (youngest) dropped the cellphone that DH used to have and handed over to him after dumbass 3’s cell phone stopped working. So, in 2 years he’d ruined 2 phones…and there was another one before that…3 phones in 3 years. And DH had the nerve to ask me if he could let dumbass 3 use one of the smartphones…HA! The phone has windows…the dumbass will crash it for sure. I said no. Also, the lower part flips open for a full keyboard…he would have dropped it and the flip-out part would have come off. He did get a new phone…clamshell of course…I bet it won’t last a year. They should just get him one of those really old dinosaur cell phones…I bet he’ll have a harder time ruining one of those…or losing it. Of course he can’t put it in his pocket…but then again that means he can’t just ignore it or drop it without knowing.

Back to princess…after I had my craft room mostly done…she told her dad she wanted my stuff out of the space downstairs so she can start moving her stuff around. I got that done in a day…of course she didn’t do anything for another 2 weeks or so. I’m sure she was smirking, that she could get people to do things that fast. My thinking is, it’s done, the pressure isn’t on me anymore. She’s a lazyass who can’t get anything done on time…not me. She didn’t even get her bed reassembled for 2 weeks…she had the mattress on the floor and that’s where she slept. She can smirk all she wants…not my problem. It’s just amazing how much nerves these dumbasses have to demand things when people can’t even expect the simplest things from them.

I probably have said it somewhere on this blog before…one can think that others will be careful with borrowed things, but a lot of times these days that’s not true. I have a camera…my newest Pentax. I had it for months before I actually used it. The next day DH borrowed it. Guess what, he dropped it. Now the thing has a ding on one corner. He did offer to replace it but then if I had accepted that offer, it would have made me look somewhat shallow, since the camera still functioned well. It’s just annoying that there’s a big ding on it and it wasn’t my fault. No more lending stuff, not even to DH…especially not to take pictures of dumbass 1 (eldest). He’s bad luck for everyone.

Princess a.k.a. dumbass 2 got a citation for curfew violation. She was at some park…presumably making out with BF. Stupid. I guess they can’t do it at his house. And he hasn’t ever been in this house…at least as far as I know. Really great behavior…yup, honor student behavior…right?

Dumbass 3 had his confirmation last month. Kids are not taught the proper way to speak in public anymore, I see. Get up there, mumble and mumble fast, don’t look at anyone or anything besides your notes, read it like it’s the first time you saw the sheet of paper, never mind that you wrote what’s on it yourself and everything was printed out from some PC so it’s all clear. It’s almost painful to watch. It doesn’t take too much to teach that…I don’t like speaking in public but I know I can do a good job of it if the situation arises. I know I should read my stuff beforehand, remember key phrases, if necessary, keep track of what line I’m on so I can look up at the audience every now and then, go slow, speak clearly. Simple enough…not for people these days it seems. I can’t believe people tell them they did a good job when they didn’t. I guess standards are just slipping way down way fast these days.

SimsHost.com has closed…so most of my stuff’s offline for now. I might bring some of them back online…I don’t know yet. I’m being lazy with that right now. I have half the mind to just let people do what they will with what they have. In a way, not having that site anymore takes off a bit of pressure…I hadn’t been updating it more than once a year…and Sims 2 is harder to make stuff for than the original game. I think I’ll just give it up.

Funny thing…Mother’s Day…and all the dumbasses were at our house. Why, you ask, didn’t they go up to see their mom since she now lives nearby and she’d missed all those Mother’s Days in years past. Well, apparently she had other plans with someone else…and that the brats didn’t arrange to be with her on that day IN ADVANCE. You know…call my secretary, make an appointment…some mother. Well, but then again, with her “alternative lifestyle” maybe she wants to claim Father’s Day instead. Who the hell knows…of course the grandparents were just furious…but then again, no one really expects much from her.

Still on Mother’s Day…I dropped a hint…I “told the dog” in the presence of DH that she’s my only baby and she better learn to make cards for me. DH went out and bought a card, tried to get Rosie’s paw print on it with green food coloring…I could have told him that wouldn’t work. I tried to do that before with a stamp pad. Her paws would probably be better for making prints in plaster, not ink on paper.

So…princess has a job at a pizza parlor owned by the family of a fellow high school basketball player. Her second day on the job she got $40 in tips…and the next week she had the nerve to ask DH if he had put money in the lunch account. And this was a week before school was closing for the summer. She can’t even shell out $1.50 a day for lunch? Selfish, selfish, selfish. And she wanted a new cell phone too…DH said she better save up for it. She seems to think she has to change phones every year…pretty much like she has to paint her room a different “non-boring” color every year. She wanted 3 new pairs of shoes, 1 for volleyball, 1 for basketball and 1 for everything else…to the tune of $300. DH didn’t want to spend that much so she decided she just wasn’t going to pay him for her trip to CA this summer, and she’d get the shoes herself. I bet she won’t really spend $300…it’s just if someone else is paying for it. And BTW, that trip to CA, that all the brats were apparently paying for themselves, that was their mother’s responsibility; according to the agreement they had when they divorced, DH was going to spend the money to get them to see the ex’s relatives on the east coast, and she pays for them to go see her mom and stepdad in CA. That in itself is unfair, because that’s still her side of the family on the east coast. And then now the brats are paying for their own plane tickets…again she dodges responsibility…nothing new. What a wonderful mother.

I wonder when DH will learn that not making princess bring up her own dirty dishes isn’t really teaching her anything. Sure, he played hardball a little but now he’s softening again. I think though, that to keep me from quitting as official dishwasher, he’s just bringing a few items up at a time. Well, he shouldn’t have to do that. But you know what, when he gets to the really moldy stuff, he better scrub those things out. I’m not doing it. He needs to play more hardball. It can only do good. She is so damn spoiled and she knows it. He’s a sucker and she uses that against him.

I think there should be an additional requirement for honor students to be on the honor roll…an unannounced home visit…to see if they are still the outstanding people they are outside of school. Princess would fail so miserably she won’t make the honor roll. Sure, she’s wonderful in school…but then again, she’ll have to find out sooner or later that that’s not all that matters. She has very little as far as life skills go. On the day of her ACT, her BF was supposed to give her a ride but she wasn’t ready so he went ahead by himself. She couldn’t find her driver’s license. Wow…so many days of driving and not knowing where it is…how does that work? If she’d gotten pulled over she would have been S*** out of luck. She didn’t find it. She brought her yearbook for identification. The last time she remembered seeing her coin purse (which contained her driver’s license AND her ATM card that had her picture on it) was 5 days before, at her mom’s. So 4 days she drove without a license. How I wish she’d gotten pulled over. How dumb is that? If I were driving, my license would be one of the first things I’d make sure I have…and the ATM card too…just in case. But then again…I wasn’t the one who said she’s smart…I personally don’t see it.

And then of course she wants to get a kitten. Mind you, her cat is still alive and very much neglected. She does nothing for him. Sometimes DH or dumbass 3 would actually feed him or clean out his litter box, but not princess. And she wants a kitten…like she has time or even the sense of responsibility needed for taking care of a pet…a baby one at that. Stupid bimbo. The cat spends more time with us on our bed. He even tries to cozy up to me, and I don’t like him. If she thinks the cat doesn’t like her, well, maybe it’s because she doesn’t take care of him. DUH.

Yet another rant about DH and precious princess. One time princess took Rosie out rollerblading. Now, Rosie’s paws had gotten much softer. Princess had gained weight. It’s been a while since the last time. When they got back, Rosie was laying on the floor of my craft room and I noticed that her paws were really red. I went to tell DH, I called the dog into the bedroom and she got on the bed. I suspected there was some bleeding, and the marks she left on the bed confirmed that. I said, that’s not happening again. Well, he said, neither of us can give her the exercise she needs. I accept that. But I pointed out that the bleeding was coming from the back parts of the paws…parts that don’t normally touch the ground. I said that’s from pulling, not so much from running. She pulls, she needs to get a grip on the road, she puts her paws down more than normal. So the next day she was pretty stiff when I took her out. No doubt her legs were aching. Then the day after that I went looking for the dog. The leash wasn’t where it was. Princess had her on the leash. So I went and asked DH if he told her about the dog’s paws. He went and talked to her. It was horrifying to me that she would take her out again to skate, since she still wasn’t walking right. DH assured me it was going to be a short loop. Apparently it was cut even shorter because the bleeding started again. Well, I didn’t think she was ready. I reminded DH that I told him she wasn’t walking fast on grass…what the hell made him think she’s okay to go rollerblading again? For someone who’s had dogs his whole life, he sure played dumb that time. I know my dog…I know how she walks, I know when she’s about to do her business, I see her paws everyday…no one knows or understands her as well as I do. He should have taken my word for it. She wasn’t ready and he had to find out the hard way…and in the meantime my baby suffered. I felt like whapping him hard that time.

DH thinks my craft room changes me. He said I’m not so friendly when I’m in here. Well, DUH! I kind of expect to be left alone if I’m here. Should I really lock the door to get my point across? What a stupid comment. This is my ME space. If he thinks he’s not welcome here…well, he would be right at least part of the time. I need a damn break from everyone.

Sometimes dumbass 3’s bass booms from downstairs. Now, I never was picky about the sounds coming out of my computer. But I found a good deal on a 6-pc speaker with subwoofer system. I have that installed on my desktop now. So when I hear his “music” coming up through the floor, I just blast my own. I’m not fond of bass, really, but hey, for the sake of giving him a dose of his own medicine, I turn it up to the max and hope he enjoys my music too. Until he gets the message, I’ll keep doing it. At least I have something to fight back with now.

One time I was in a really bad mood and I was playing my music really loudly. DH comes and tells me that I was playing it loud. Well, considering that he does it too, and all his brats do it too, I just gave him a blank stare. I didn’t turn it down. If he’s not happy, then I guess it’s time he turned it down and told everyone else to do the same too. Don’t complain about something you do yourself. I don’t complain about the loud noises anymore. I just make my own. That way others can complain and I can just give them a blank stare till they go away. I can play their game.

I should give everyone a shock and just leave enough stuff in the kitchen for everyone. One plate each, 1 bowl, 1 spoon, 1 fork, 1 butter knife, 1 steak knife, 1 cup, 1 mug for hot drinks. And then one frying pan, 1 casserole, and none of the plastic microwaveable containers. Maybe then they’ll learn to clean their own stuff if they want to eat. They’d all hate me but then again…I hate them all…LOL, it would just balance things out.

Dumbass 3 has a GF…hispanic-looking with well-developed boobs. That must be what’s holding him to her. She’s a slut in the making though. They got in trouble in school for making out in the hallway. She gave him a hickey on the school bus. They stood in the driveway just hugging and kissing for the better part of half an hour…and she had her hands under his shirt too. She had him on his lap in the playground across the creek. How many 14-year olds are this expressive? I bet she put out already. He seems to hardly ever see her anymore…he probably got bored…I’m thinking he’d gotten what he wanted from her. And I bet he’ll keep on finding more like her because it’s instant gratification. He’s lazy, that would just fit him fine.

What else…I cut hubby’s hair…with scissors!!! I’ve cut my own hair but only with the clipper with all the attachments for different lengths. I’ve done that 3 times so far and this last one is the shortest by far. I wish I could go bald but the sight of bald women is still not quite ordinary. I would hate for people to be staring at me.

So, in summary, life still sucks, I’m still surrounded by dumbasses, but I have my craft room and I can cut hair.

Here are pics of hubby’s new hairdo.

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