Product Reviews

Found this whilst waiting for my drugs at the pharmacy:


Just had one.

And then another....

OH dear, I believe this may be my next addiction.

Thankfully, they're all mine because the bearded eye-roller wouldn't dare share a bag of anything with me right now, what with the rash and hacking and all....

I guess there are benefits to being the equivalent of Typhoid Mary.

We're going to ignore the elephant in the room for a lil' bit if you don't mind, OK?

The bearded eye-roller finally convinced me to get the uber cool washer and dryer he had his eye on. We had to compromise a bit though. I just can NOT justify spending 1,000 + EACH on a washer and dryer, so we both settled on the Whirlpool Duet Sport. They're a smaller, more plain version of the ones he wanted, but they still do the job.



They look big, but it's because we bought the stands that go underneath the units to raise the machines up and also serve as storage units.

As y'all know- I'm pretty fussy about my laundry being done JUST.SO. Even with all that fussiness, I had no idea that my laundry could turn out brighter and whiter simply due to the washing machine. I pulled my whites out of the dryer today and they were almost florescent! Without bleach, even.

On top of all of that, they conserve energy and water- so I feel like it was a good investment. Especially since we got the smaller white versions, that were MUCH less expensive.

I'll never get over my miserly ways.... much to the chagrin of BER.

My old washer and dryer worked fine, except for the fact that the spin cycle didn't really work very well. My clothes were still very wet when I put them into the dryer. Since they were still in working condition, I advertised them on Craigs List- free to the first person to answer the ad (and yes, I noted that the spin cycle wasn't that great). I spiffed them up to a nice shine and we put them in front of our garage for their new owner. I even put an almost full Costco sized Tide (with fabreeze!) laundry soap on top of the washer, since our new washer requires special soap.

The gal that picked them up left the sweetest note about how beautiful the washer and dryer were and how much she really needed a washer and dryer but couldn't afford it. It made us feel really good to help someone else out.

As for the elephant- I'm OK. I think y'all will start hearing from me more in the next couple of weeks. I've finally figured out that I've been going through the stages of grief- something I'm fully aware of due to my previous Hospice experience. I do NOT equate this in ANY way with losing a loved one, but the stages are similar.

Right now, I'm in the bitter stage, but acceptance is starting to peek through occasionally.

I certainly feel loved and cared about by my friends (both cyber and 3-d) and family, and that has meant so much to me. Your email, comments, and cards have been so supportive and loving. I'm very VERY blessed.

Eagles Hell Freezes Over
We have the DVD of the concert and watched it AGAIN last night. We pull it out every few months and it's just as great to watch as the last time. I gave the bearded eye-roller a bit of trivia last night. The first time we watched it was the evening I knew that I was in love with him... way back in the day when we were dating.

Of course, I didn't tell him THEN, or he would have freaked out. I remember that the song Desperado had a lot of meaning that evening. BER was certain at the time that he'd never want to be in a long-term relationship ever again.

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it's too late

I'm glad that those lyrics no longer fit.

It's nice to have a memory like that attached to something we can pull out every few months. Makes me feel all mushy and stuff....

Sting - All this time
Watched that last night too, well until I fell asleep after 7 hours of gardening. Holy cow am I sore today. I've reviewed this DVD before, but wanted to highlight it again.

Because it took place on September 11, 2001, it had a very different atmosphere. 'Haunting' is really the only word that truly fits.

I highly suggest picking up these two concert videos (also Kenny Loggins in the redwood forest is good, by the way) if you ever need a de-stresser. I'm not getting paid for these reviews, so pick them up from wherever is convenient to you.

The bearded eye-roller and I are both feeling the strain in our jobs, and it's nice that we have something that can make us feel relaxed.

As they say, "Music soothes the savage beast".

...and it really does.

As y'all know- I'm a coffee addict with a capital C and capital A. Holy smokes, do I love coffee.

I'm also very particular on how it's prepared. I don't like brewed coffee. Yech and yuck. I like espresso, lattes and americanos. My drink of choice is espresso with a bit of half and half and a packet of splenda. Second choice is a straight shot of espresso down the hatch.

Remember when my espresso maker broke in January? Oh, I'm sure you don't, but pretend you do. I must have been so devastated by it that I didn't even write about it. I can't find a post anywhere about the broken espresso maker. Either that, or I was too drugged up at the time to write properly.

Anyhoo- it was quickly replaced (I mean in TWO days, and about a week after I had surgery) by this lil' baby:


PS- magnifica is right. LOVE this machine.

But that's not what I'm reviewing (even though it gets an A+). Let's talk coffee, shall we?

As particular as I am about wine (which I haven't had in over a month due to the head bonking, poor me...), it's nothing compared to how particular I am about coffee. I remember almost fainting when Michael told me that he drinks folgers crystals. I immediately went into action and bought him a coffee maker and sent him REAL coffee.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Michael , but I'm assuming you're back to the folgers? I think we brought the wrong baby home from the hospital. You simply can NOT be my brother.

Anyhoo- my coffee of choice these days is Peets- Major Dickason's blend. Deeeeelish!

I'm enjoying it right now, as a matter of fact.

In other news:
I got off my arse and gardened for a bit yesterday. My predictions of being showered and dressed by 5pm were almost spot on. By the time I finished in the garden, and then showered it was 5:05.

I got into something very nasty in the garden and my forearms, chest and legs looked like they'd been in some sort of gang fight.

Could it have been this?


Or was it this?


Up close and personal to the little prickly thing (although it looks fairly innocent from this view):


In any case- both of those obnoxious things are DEAD to me! DEAD, I tell you!

I've decided that my gardens need some RED.


I think I'm going to go out today and buy some red geraniums. I've heard that they cut down on mosquitoes, so we'll test that theory out. The bearded eye-roller and I love to sit on our back porch bench, as you know, but we do not like being eaten alive. I dunno- maybe we're too fussy.

Anyhoo, I'll post the 'afters' when I'm done, for those of you that give a rats behind about that sort of thing.

I'm feeling great today (always feel a need to post when I'm feeling good. It sorta balances out the whiny posts!)

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Reminding you again, that none of this is paid advertisement. I just like to brag about my 'finds'.

Woot
Holy cow- I *LOVE* this place! I have bought many MANY things from them and they've all been great. Quick shipping and fabulous deals. They post one deal a day and have only so many to offer, so I have this one on my feeds. Kids? (Cameron and Casey and sweethearts), Santa Clause also happens to shop there. tee hee.

And yes- I bought today's deal. It's now illegal in our state (thank goodness- get these idiots off the road!) to talk on your cellphone whilst driving. I never talk on my cellphone anyway- but what the heck.... it was a good deal.

The bearded eye-roller's mom
With all the head-bonking excitement, I failed to mention that it was BER's birthday last Thursday. Without BER's mom, BER would have never happened. Her product line (BER ) is unbeatable. Sadly, he's a one-time deal and I got him. Too bad for everyone else.

Happy be-lated birthday sweet, sweet husband. You truly are the man of my dreams and even though I tell you this EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. (really peeps, I do tell him this every day); it never hurts to mention it on my blog and shout it from the rooftops- I feel like the luckiest woman on the planet (universe, even) that I'm married to you.

"X" hospital's ER room and the medical profession as a whole
Ten thousand thumbs down. BER and I had quite an evil laugh yesterday after opening the mail. We received a "how are we doing" request to rate the ER care I recently received. Will I be completing this survey? You can bet your bippy (whatever THAT is) AND the farm on that.