My Single Mom Life

I was recently fortunate enough to receive a new product from Rubbermaid called the Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop, to try it out, take it on a few test runs on the terrazzo, keep it, and to also give one away to one lucky reader!

I'm sure that I've complained about my terrazzo flooring on this blog before, and I know that I just recently complained about it on KatScan, and this is what I said in one of my posts there:
"Terrazzo is just so hard to clean, it's made with concrete, stones, and marble chips, then it's given a protective coating which is supposed to keep it shiny and looking good.
Every so many years, you're supposed to have it restored, sand-blasted down, sanded again, buffed, given a new protective coating, and then polished and polished until it looks all shiny and new again.
But I don't think that the terrazzo in my house has been restored in many years, I mean, I have now lived here in this duplex for 12 years and the floors didn't look that great when I moved in, so yeah, I'm pretty damn positive that they haven't been restored in ages.
This duplex was built in the early 1970's, and that's when the terrazzo was laid down, and I'm not even sure that it was restored in the years following that.
Cleaning it is a real hassle, you can wash it, scrub it, wash and scrub it again, and it still doesn't look all that great."

I have used sponge mops, "wonder" mops, so-called "smart" mops, and I've also used those Swiffer mops with the expensive refill pads and the expensive cleaning solution refills too.
While they all got my terrazzo clean, it just never really looked all that good after I was done.
I liked the Swiffer because I could throw away the icky dirty cleaning pads after, I didn't have to rinse and wring them out after I was done cleaning like I did with the sponge and "wonder" mops, but the refill pads and cleaning solution just got too expensive for me to keep buying.
In comes the Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop.

The Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop comes with washable microfiber cleaning pads that you just take off and throw in the washing machine when you're done cleaning.
The microfiber cleaning pads also picked up far more dirt and little pieces of whatever off of my floor that all of those other mops left behind.

The Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop also comes with it's own bottle for making your own cleaning solutions.
That's right, you don't have to buy those expensive cleaners anymore!
You make your own!
Just throw in some hot water and a little bit of whatever you like, and ta-da!
A far cheaper, far better, cleaning solution!
What homemade cleaning solution works really, really good on my icky, hard to clean terrazzo flooring?
I pour in 1/4 cup of white distilled vinegar, and then fill the rest of the bottle with hot tap water, give it a little shake-up, then pop the bottle into the mop, and away we go!
The vinegar and water mixture cleans the stains off the terrazzo flooring, and the microfiber pad cleans up anything that my broom left behind, it also scrubs the cleaning solution into the floor really good, and the vinegar leaves a nice, clean, and fresh smell behind.

What if you don't like vinegar?
That's OK!
You can make any cleaning solution that you like, and here are some solutions that Rubbermaid suggests:

Cleaning Solution 1: 2 Tablespoons ammonia, 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of baby shampoo, fill the rest with hot water
Cleaning Solution 2: 2 Tablespoons white vinegar, 2-3 drops liquid soap, fill the rest with hot water
Cleaning Solution 3: 2 Tablespoons baking soda. 2-3 drops liquid soap, fill the rest with hot water
Cleaning Solution 4: 1 Tablespoon white vinegar, 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil, fill the rest with hot water

Would you like to have your own Rubbermaid Reveal Mop?
If so, you can win one right here by entering this giveaway!
Rules:
The giveaway is open to United States and Canada, (including Alaska and Hawaii).
This giveaway is open to all, not just bloggers, but rules must be followed.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
No entering on behalf of others, using extra identities or others identities, no automated program entries, etc.
I can check and verify IP addresses and email addresses. *wink*
If you are caught cheating, you will be banned from this giveaway and any future giveaways on my blogs.
This giveaway is only open to those ages 18+.
All entries must be received by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, October 3, 2010.
I will pick the winner randomly using random.org on Monday, October 4, 2010, email the winner, and they will have just 24 hours to claim their prize.
If I do not get a reply within 24 hours, I will pick a new winner using random.org again.

How to enter:
This is the required entry, if this one entry is not done, you will not qualify for the giveaway.
For your chance to win, please tell me why you would like to have the new Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop instead of your current floor cleaning method, and tell me what your current floor cleaning method is.

For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following, each of these is worth 1 additional entry.
You MUST leave a separate comment for each one that you do so that all your entries can be accurately counted.

* Post about this giveaway on your blog, Twitter, and/or Facebook, and you can use the following to link back to this post: http://tinyurl.com/2a9tqh4
* Follow me on Twitter
* Follow Lauren of Rubbermaid on Twitter
* Follow Rubbermaid on Twitter
* Follow Erin of Rubbermaid on Twitter
* Like Rubbermaid on Facebook

In accordance with my disclosure and privacy policy;
I received the Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop for free in exchange for a review of the product.
A positive toned review was not required. I was asked to post my honest thoughts and opinions of the product, and if I liked the product and wanted to give one away, I was free to hold a giveaway with the giveaway rules of my own choosing.

Posted by Kat at 6:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (41)

It started last Wednesday the 15th, hitting that curb at 65mph, it just really did me in.
I was in pain for days, well, I am still in pain, but by the following Monday, it was much worse.
I woke up on Monday the 20th with both of my arms completely numb and stiff, I could barely move them, my hands were locked in this really odd position, like just totally locked up.
I couldn't hold a pen, a cup, anything, and by that afternoon, the numbness and stiffness had spread to my thighs and was moving down my legs, and had also started to make the left side of my face really numb as well.
When Sebastian got home from school, he tried talking to me and because of the numbness and stiffness, he said that when I replied to him, I was slurring my speech really bad, so he called an ambulance.
The ambulance showed up, took my vitals, and then rushed me to the hospital where I was immediately given some heavy duty muscle relaxers and pain medicine, and something to calm me down because I was hyperventilating, I didn't even know that I was, but they said I was, so I guess that I was. haha
They did xrays and a CT scan and said that the ligaments and tendons in my neck and shoulders were all torn up.
I knew something had gone wrong when we hit that curb, I just knew it, felt it, something ripped and I was right.
The ER doc put me on some new meds and ordered me to bed rest, so that's why my posting has been totally sporadic and stuff this last week and a half or so.
I'm not even supposed to be sitting here now, so shhh, don't tell on me.

After I left the ER, Chris, Mindy's husband, picked me up and took me to Walgreen's to get the new meds the doc had prescribed for me, and they proceeded to give my ID and Medicare card to a different customer.
Yup.
My ID and Medicare card are in the hands of someone else, and apparently, that someone has decided to keep them because I haven't gotten them back in the mail or anything, they're just gone.
I hope they don't think that they can open a line of credit with my info, I have really bad credit. Ha!
But I have reported my ID and Medicare card as lost/stolen to the police and Medicare, so if anyone tries to use them, it will get flagged and they'll get busted.

It's just been a week or so of complete crap for me, I honestly should be used to this kind of stuff by now ya know?
It's always something with me, if something can go wrong, IT WILL go wrong for me.
If this kind of crap keeps happening, like if it doesn't end soon, I'm going to start needing some products for hair loss because I'm ripping it out slowly every time that I get so stressed out.
I'm not kidding either, I actually caught myself pulling strands of hair out the other day.
Single strands at a time, but pulling them out, it's like a nervous habit that I've picked up now.
Not good.

I was supposed to go in for a cervical epidural this morning but didn't make it because my ride's car wouldn't start and it was far too late to call anyone else.
Now I have to call someone else and ask them if they can take me, then schedule my appointment around their schedule, because the epidural takes 3-5 hours and the person who takes me has to be able to pick me up and help me walk and get in out of the car and house when I get home because I won't be able to walk on my own.

I don't know.
Things just keep getting all screwed up for me, I really should be used to it, I don't know why I get so surprised when things happen, but I always do.
And my neighbors are driving me crazy too, they intentionally ran over my trash and recycle bins tonight because she's mad at me for not doing something for her that she wanted me to do.
Too bad.
I do and do and do for so many people, and when it comes time for me to need their help, like a freaking ride to get medical treatments, they don't come through, they say they can't, so I'm sick of it and said no, I put my foot down and said no, and so now she's mad at me and taking it out on my garbage cans.
How childish can you get?

Posted by Kat at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every year, the ALA, the American Library Association, holds banned books week.
This year banned books week is September 25 through October 2, 2010.
You can learn more about frequently challenged books by reading this page on the ALA website.

I love to read, I don't read as much as I used to or as much as I would like, but I still love to read a really great book.
It really bothers me that individuals and groups try to get books taken off of the shelves of public and school libraries, they try to limit what we and our children can read simply because they don't like the books for political, sexual, or religious reasons, but our first amendment rights protect each of us, it allows us to read these books if we want to, if we want our kids to read them.

"Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom - the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular - provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them."

I would love to see people buying and reading any of the books on the top 100 list, and you can even save some money when you buy one or more of the books by checking to see if they are on sale at Buy.com.
I picked a random title off of the list, The Lord of the Rings, and they have it on sale in paperback for just $10.97, and that price includes the shipping.

Why is The Lord of the Rings on the banned and challenged list?
People believe that it, along with more of Tolkien's novels, are satanic.
In 2001, The Lord of the Rings, along with more of Tolkien's novels, were burned in Alamagordo, NM outside of the Christ Community Church.

Here are 10 books that you might not expect to be on the list via Yahoo!, and the reasons that they are/were on the list at some point.
You can read the other titles and reasons by clicking the link above. *!*
Captain Underpants - One of the top 10 most frequently banned and challenged books for 2002, 2004 and 2005. The books were said to contain offensive language, to be sexually explicit and to be anti-family.
Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary - Contained an offending term, oral sex.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? - The Texas Board of Education banned the book, in January 2010, because it thought the book was written by the same Bill Martin who penned the nonchildren's book "Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation."
James and the Giant Peach - James was disobedient and there was violence in the book.
American Heritage Dictionary (1969) - It contains 39 objectionable words. It was also banned by the Anchorage School Board in 1987 for its inclusion of slang words, including "balls."
Grimm's Fairy Tales - A couple of California school districts found a whole new reason to ban Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1989: misuse of alcohol. Little Red Riding Hood's basket for her grandmother includes wine.

In the extended entry, you will find the top 100 most banned or challenged books.
The titles in bold represent banned or challenged books.
The titles not in bold may have been banned or challenged, but there have not been any reports on them.
I have placed two stars ** next to the books on the list that I have read.
I would love to see other bloggers post the list of the top 100 banned and challenged books on their blogs, and to see them check off, mark, or star, the books on the list that they have read.
Will you post the list on your blog?

*!* The books and reasons were copied directly from the Yahoo! article.

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald **
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger **
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck **
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee **
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker **
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison **
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding **
9. 1984, by George Orwell **
10. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck **
13. Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White **
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller **
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley **
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell **
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway **
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner **
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway **
21. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne **
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison **
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison **
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell **
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey **
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut **
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway **
31. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway **
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London **
34. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James **
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp, by John Irving **
38. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren **
39. A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster **
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien **
41. Schindler's List, by Thomas Keneally **
42. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
43. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
44. Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf **
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum **
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence **
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess **
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia, by Willa Cather
52. Howards End, by E.M. Forster **
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote **
54. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz, by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice, by William Styron **
58. Absalom, Absalom!, by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster **
60. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton **
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor **
62. Tender Is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando, by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe **
66. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut **
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
68. Light in August, by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams **
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs **
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh **
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence **
76. Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe
77. In Our Time, by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett **
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer **
81. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise, by Don DeLillo **
83. O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells **
86. Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians, by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser **
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame **
91. This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald **
92. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand **
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowles **
94. Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald **
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike **
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread, by E.M. Forster **
99. Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie

Posted by Kat at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a very old nursery rhyme, and the lyrics vary, but these are the ones that I remember from when I was a kid, and this picture is the exact one that I remember being in my big book of nursery rhymes.

Taffy was a Welshman,
Taffy was a thief;
Taffy came to my house
And stole a piece of beef.

I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy was not home;
Taffy came to my house
And stole a mutton bone.

I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy was not in;
Taffy came to my house
And stole a silver pin.

I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy was in bed;
So I took up a poker
And I flung it at his head

Posted by Kat at 4:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's been an absolutely crappy last few days, a total roller coaster, and pain, both physical and emotional.

I had my doctor appointment Wednesday morning at 9:45am, and I forgot to take my drink with me, and I have to have a drink just in case I have to take a pee test, so I asked my friend to stop anywhere between my house and the doc's so I could get a drink.
Well, we're flying down Bee Ridge Road, she sees a gas station, and with no warning, she just pulls a wicked right hand turn, I don't even think she used a blinker, and she went up and over one of those parking lot curbs on just the passenger side of the car, my side.

The right tire went up and over, and all of my titanium felt like it went up into my skull and slammed back down into my tailbone, and then the back right tire went up and over, and again, the titanium felt like it went up into my skull and slammed back down again.
I am still in a world of hurt from hitting that curb around 65mph, days later.

Then!
I was so upset about some text messages that I received, approximately 27 of them over the course of just an hour, that when I went to get out of the car at the pharmacy, I fell out, landed on my hands and knees, and again, all of the titanium felt like it got slammed around in there.
I am still in so much pain.

Those text messages, ugh.
A so-called friend of like 7 years, was ripping into me because I said no to her latest request of wanting more of my time and things that I have.
She's always asking me for stuff, cigs, laundry soap, to fix her computer, all kinds of stuff, and this time, she knew that I got my food stamps on Wednesday, so she asked me to let her buy them off of me for .50cents on the dollar, I said no, I don't sell them, ever, they are for me to buy my family food.
She started texting in all caps that she needed the food stamps to buy food for her house because she spent the money her husband gave her for groceries on drugs, and so if she didn't get the groceries, he was gonna be furious and know that she was using.
I said that wasn't my problem, I wouldn't be selling her my stamps, no, sorry.
She spent the next 20 some-odd text messages absolutely berating me, calling me names, telling me that I was a terrible friend to her, that I never help her, that she's always helping me, doing things for me, so I owed her this, that technically, I should just give her ALL of my stamps, so many really horrible things, I was just absolutely crushed, devastated, that she was saying all of that to me.
The friends that I was with who took me to the doc's, they read the messages and were just floored, telling me that wasn't right for her to be talking to me like that, and also to do it by text message was just super cowardly too.
I just had such a horrible day on Wednesday between the curb accident, falling out of the car, and those messages, just a really, really, super bad day.
My blood pressure has been through the roof, I haven't been sleeping hardly at all, but insomnia is nothing new for me.
But then today around 11am, I passed out cold on the couch and didn't wake up until almost 8pm.
I just passed out from total exhaustion I guess.
I am also an emotional eater.
When I am really super sad and stressed out, I eat, and eat, and eat.
I had bought a red velvet cake on Wednesday when I went shopping, the cake WAS slightly smaller than a pound cake in width and length, and it WAS to die for.
Because of how upset I was, crying, yelling, screaming, and in so much physical pain too, I just ate that entire cake all by myself in 3 sittings/slices.
I can't believe that I did that, I haven't stuffed like that in years and years, but Wednesday, everything that happened, all of the pain, physical and emotional, I stuffed big time and ate an entire cake all by myself.
I feel really horrible about doing that because I've done so well with my weight loss, so the emotional stuffing, wow, that was just so bad and I really haven't done that in years.

Anyway, when I went to the store, I only got a few things to make a few meals, so I do need to go back and I was hoping that the coupons my mom said she sent me would have come today, but oh well, they didn't, so I'll just wait until they come to do the rest of my shopping.
I need to and like to save as much money on groceries as possible.
I am still so upset about what my "so-called friend" did and said, all over MY food stamps.
She behaved like I should have just given them to her, like I should have just done it so that her husband didn't catch her doing drugs again.
She's been doing them for a long time and he said if he caught her again, he was going to leave, so she just expected me to cover for her, let her go buy their groceries so she didn't get caught, and when I said no, she accused me of wanting her to get caught.
I don't give a crap what people do, but just don't expect me to fix it for them, ya know?
Just don't demand that I fix your mistakes, and that's what she did to me, demanded that I let her spend my food money so she doesn't get caught, and all of the things that she said to me, still hurt me, I am still so so upset by it all, it still hurt really bad.

Posted by Kat at 1:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I had some friends spend the night with us last night, it was so great to have them here, spend the night talking, laughing, just hanging out.
I have so missed having them around, so when they asked to come spend the night, I said "Of course, come right over!"
They are taking me to my doctor appointment this morning around 9am, so it was much easier for them to spend the night anyway, but our visits have been so rare lately that having them hang out overnight was just really great.

I have a couple things to talk to my doctor about today, like my insomnia, my weight loss, and my nerves.
Well, anxiety, to be more specific.
I have just been so stressed out lately, for months it feels like, and it probably has been months, just building and building up inside me, and it has been slowly seeping out in these tiny little explosions of both extreme anger and extreme sadness.
I have either been screaming mad or crying uncontrollably, and then it shuts off as quickly as it started, so I need to talk to him about it, it has really been bothering me to be an emotional roller-coaster, jumping at the slightest sounds, crying, yelling, just all over the place.

I also need to talk to him about my super quick weight loss because it's bothering people.
Yes, MY weight loss is bothering people.
It has taken me a full year to lose 46lbs and keep it off, not gain any of it back, and still losing more weight.
In July 2009, I weighed 196, I now weigh 150 on the dot, and I am still losing more.
I've lost 46lbs slowly over the course of a year, but it's really bothering some people.
I've been told that I look totally unhealthy, that I've lost too much weight, and that there must be something wrong with me like an eating disorder or something, all because I'm losing weight.
I know that I lose weight in my legs really quickly, I lose it in my arms and legs before I start losing it in my midsection, so when people see my skinny legs, they assume that the rest of my body is just as thin but they can't tell because I wear baggy shorts and shirts.
So just to shut some people up, *cough neighbor lady cough* I'm going to ask my doctor if I'm OK, if the amount of weight that I've lost is too much for my height, frame, and age, BUT I am going to tell him that it took me a year to lose those 46lbs, that I didn't drop it all in like two or three months, but I am also kind of curious if I'm OK, which I'm sure that I am, but people have made me a little self-conscious about it now.
I HATE that.
I hate how other people's perceptions of us, well me, affect me and my thinking about myself.
I was all proud of myself that for the first time in years, I'm down to 150 again, and now their opinions of how I look too thin has me worried that maybe I am too thin.

After I go to the doctor's, I need to take the teen's computer back to Geek Squad because they repaired it, but didn't actually repair it.
The computer is still doing the exact same thing that it was doing when I first brought it to them a month ago, and they replaced the motherboard to repair a video problem that we didn't even have, they wiped out the hard drive of all of our programs, and then said it was fixed, and told us to come pick it up.
We brought it home, plugged it in, and a disc started to auto-run.
They left one of their disc in it, one of their testing discs.
We took the disc out, rebooted, and it did the exact same things that caused us to bring it in for repair the first time, over and over and over.
When we picked it up, they never plugged it in to show us that they had it working like they are supposed to do either.
Had they plugged it in to show us, they would have realized that they left one of their discs in there.
I have already spoken to the store manager, he's expecting me to bring it in for repair, again, this week.

Then after that, I need to go to the pharmacy, and then much later on today because doing all of that this morning is going to wipe me out for awhile, do the grocery shopping at Publix.
And speaking of my neighbors, the landlord came over and warned them again about being careful flushing when it rains heavy, and also about NOT flushing things like baby wipes because the septic system cannot handle it.
He also told them that they need to switch to a septic-safe toilet paper like Scott instead of any kind of toilet paper that says super soft, quilted, 3 ply, etc etc.
The paper needs to be septic-safe, and Scott is as safe as it gets.
He also told them that they also need to be putting down one single box of Rid-X every single month too, not just me, but there are three of them using both of their bathrooms, so they need to dump just one box per month down there.
And boy, didn't she complain about that!
Oh my god! You would have thought he told her to replace the entire septic system because she complained about the cost of of that one single box like it was simply going to break her finances and budget every month!
It only costs $4.99, that's it, and it just has to be done once per month, but she complained and complained like the stuff costs $1,000.00 per box!
I really do not miss this stuff about them living next door.

Posted by Kat at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ever since my old neighbors moved back in, we've been having problems with the plumbing and septic system again.
They keep plugging up the toilet, and this causes our toilet to back up and overflow into the house.
Tonight, well last night, they plugged up their toilet and it overflowed, this caused my back bathroom and bedroom to flood because it was their back bathroom that was plugged up and overflowing, and it also caused my main bathroom toilet to back up and start to overflow.
The teens quickly helped me take care of it, soaking up the water with towels and mops, but ugh!
So damn frustrating!
They've only been moved back in a short time now, like a little less than three months, and in just that short amount of time, they have caused this to happen at least a dozen times!
I am getting so tired of having to plunge our toilet, soak up water, and run laundry.
I have warned them repeatedly that it's septic, that when it rains heavy, like it does every single day in the summer for at least 20 minutes, that you have to be super careful flushing the toilets because the ground gets too saturated and the drain field can't take the pressure.
They simply do not listen!

But oh, she'll listen if it's something that's super important to her like me helping her understand her disability insurance paperwork and helping her fill it all out correctly every time they send her stuff to fill out.
I'm the one she came to for help when she was applying for disability, I'm the one who told her how it works, how they deny everybody just to see who is really serious and who isn't.
I'm the one who helped her through the appeals process and all of it, she listens so attentively when it's something like that, but when it comes to flooding the damn duplex, she simply will not listen to me!

I've told her that you have to use septic safe toilet paper like Scott, that if she uses baby wipes to keep herself clean, that they absolutely, positively, cannot be flushed.
But do you know what the landlord fished out of the septic lines when it got clogged when they lived here before?
That's right!
Baby wipes!!
I'm just really angry and frustrated that she will not listen, that she keeps flushing things down there that is clogging it up, causing it to overflow and back up into the house.
Every morning I have to have the plunger ready just in case it starts to back up because they get up at 5am and she uses baby wipes every morning.
I've told her so so many times to NOT flush them, and she insists that they are septic safe.
Just because it says so on the box does not mean that OUR septic system can handle them.
It's a very old duplex, the septic system is as old as the house, you have to be careful until they finally get around to adding us to the city sewer grid which they've been promising for as long as I've lived here, 12 years.
I'm just really tired and frustrated right now.

Posted by Kat at 2:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There's a couple of things that I would like to get, one when I can spend the extra money, and one that I want to get Sebastian for either Christmas or just because it will help him with his digital design classes and the stuff that he wants to do for his future career.

The first thing that I would like to get is for me and my computer.
I want to get a USB hub like this Belkin Hi-Speed USB 7-Port Mobile Hub which is on sale right now at Buy.com for just $14.99, it's normally $39.99, so a really big savings of $25.00.

I have so many USB gadgets, and only six ports.
I have four on the front, right at the top of the tower, and two ports on the back, but I have approximately 12-14 different USB gadgets that I am always switching in and out of being plugged in because I don't have enough places to hook them all up.
Most of them are gadgets that use the USB to recharge, and they can all transfer files to and from the gadget to the computer.
It would be really great to not have to switch the cords in and out all of the time, doing that has caused me to lose three different USB cords so far that I cannot find replacements for, so yeah, if they could all be plugged in all of the time there would be no more lost cords, and no more pain in the butt switching things around all of the time.

The other thing that I would like to get is for Sebastian.
It's called Manga Studio™ Debut 4.

Sebastian wants to go into digital design and video game making, that kind of stuff, for his career, so I am always supporting him and his artwork, his dream career.
He sends me things from school all of the time and it just started back up again about two weeks ago, and I want to help him with his dream, so if I can get him some computer tools, programs like this that will help him get better and better at what he makes, then that's what I'm going to do.
I want him to be successful and happy, live a very good and successful life doing a job that he loves.
The Manga Studio helps make manga (anime) and comics that are ready to publish quickly and easily, so it says.
You can use all of the tools that it comes with, or use a pen tablet to draw freehand and it will appear in the program, ready to color and animate.
I bought him a used pen tablet from my blogging friend Charlotte at Life After The Army a couple of years ago, and he's really good at it, so we already have one of those that can be used with the Manga Studio program.
You can animate your work, make comics, and add thought balloons to have a dialog between the characters that you create.
It even allows you to scan drawings that you have made on paper and upload them to the program, and I already have a scanner, and I've scanned quite a few of the drawings that he's made here at home over the summer so he could post them to his Facebook and also have them readily available to email to people who may ask for them.
I would post one of his sketches, a concept logo for his future design business, but it's a concept logo and he doesn't want anyone to steal any of his ideas, so I have to respect that and not post any of them up, but trust me, they are so very cool looking.

The program will fit and work on their Vista operated computer once we get it back from being repaired.
The motherboard fried, but because I had just bought it in February, it's still under manufacturer warranty, so it's currently being repaired at no cost to me which is really good because, like I said, I just bought it with my tax return and paid way more for it than I wanted to.
To have the motherboard fry in June, just slightly over four months after purchasing it, yeah, it's a very good thing that I don't have to pay to have it fixed.

Posted by Kat at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In blogging and site news, I have had to shut down comments on all previous entries, including the last two that I just wrote a single day ago, due to being flooded by some nasty and evil spammers.
All comments get moderated anyway, nothing gets published unless I say it does, but I am getting pounded by spammers!
Every hour, I get approximately 20-30 spam comments from the same exact spammer(s) all posting the same exact list of spam URLs, to the exact same nasty websites.
They think they are oh so clever though, they say things like the following at the beginning of their huge lists of URLs in the hopes that I will mistake it as a real comment and not mark it as spam and block their IP address;

"Congrats on your new home!" (what?)
"I hope that I can have one someday too!" (er?)
"Sorry for my silence these past days, my computer was broken." (I hope you get the blue-screen of death, for reals!)
"In related news, the Wayans brothers want to cast Tiger woods in their next movie but they can't decide if the title should be White Chicks 11 or 12 ?" (ha-ha! OK, that IS kinda funny, but it's still spam!)
"Oh man, I'm so not your friend anymore!" (Good! Now go away and leave my blog alone!!)
"Deeply entrenched lurker here ;)" (Great, thanks for letting me know, IP is now blocked!)
And oh so many more stupid and off topic comments like them.
_________________

Sebastian and I took a walk to the corner store a bit ago, and when we go for walks, he always tells me about his day or a story from his life from another day.
Tonight he told me about one of the times that he went to the horse farm with my sister Jo to ride the horses and help out around the farm for a day.
The horse farm they go to lets you ride a horse for awhile for free if you help out around the farm first.
Muck out the stalls, feed the chickens, geese, horses, and pigs, all of that kind of stuff, and then you can pick a horse that you like to ride, and go out riding the beautiful trails for a couple of hours.

One Saturday when they went, one of the people who works at the farm asked him to go to the stalls and get the horse tack, that's all that she said to him, so he started to walk off toward the stalls and then stopped.
He walked over to Aunt Jo, and asked her, "Aunt Jo, what is horse tack?"
She told him to go and just grab everything that you need to ride the horse.
He went to the stalls and grabbed a bridle, bits, a harness, a saddle, saddle pads, stirrups, reins, crops, and a martingale.
He carried it all back out to the area where they were getting the horses ready for a day of riding, and brought it to the woman who had told him to go get it.
He started helping her put it all on the horse he was going to be riding that day, Maximilian, and he just had to know exactly what it was, so he asked her, "Which one of these things that I brought, is the horse tack?"
She laughed a little bit, and then she said to him, "It's all horse tack. We call all of the stuff that you use for riding a horse, 'tack'. It's so much simpler to say 'get the tack', then it is to say 'get the bridle, bits, a harness, a saddle, saddle pads, stirrups, reins, crops, and a martingale', isn't it?"
He agreed and said yes, and he also felt a little bit embarrassed by asking, but he really didn't know.

And neither did I until he told me the story tonight.
When we came home from the store, I wanted to see if he was pulling my leg, so I typed into Google, what is horse tack, and this is the definition that I found;
"Tack is a term used to describe any of the various equipment and accessories worn by horses in the course of their use as domesticated animals. Saddles, stirrups, bridles, halters, reins, bits, harnesses, martingales, and breastplates are all forms of horse tack. Equipping a horse is often referred to as tacking up."

I learned something new on my walk tonight.
I like learning new things.
I also like having those walks with my sons, whichever one decides to walk to the corner store and back with me, because it gives me a chance to have some one-on-one alone time with them.
I get to talk with just them, no one else around to interrupt or make them uncomfortable, they open up and tell me things when it's just the two of us.
The boys and I have always had a pretty good open communication line between us, but I would say that the older they got, the harder it was to talk with them about some things.
Both of them are going through some things, some of those things I won't be discussing on my blogs, but I do talk about them with my counselor when I go and see her (once a month) because those things have a lot to do with the current situations in my house and with my family.
Earlier tonight, all three of us sat down and talked about the family issues that have had me really upset for several days now, some that I did blog about.
There were a lot of questions, a lot of denial, a lot of yelling, a lot of crying, a lot of confusion, and a lot more of me learning what people think and say about me.
There's a very deep hatred for me because I packed up my sons and moved here to Florida in 1997, instead of just staying in Maine.
But I will have to talk more about that stuff in another post because this one is now well over 1,000 words, and I know, super long posts like this don't get read all of the way through, people skim long posts, or just don't even bother reading long posts at all.
And that's OK.
I blog it because I need to, because I need to talk it out, get it out, so it doesn't build up in me and cause an emotional explosion.
So that's all for now, more to follow, most definitely.

Comments temporarily disabled.

Posted by Kat at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)