Nerds With Birds

The discussion began with me asking “what do you want for Christmas again?” to the kiddo’s. Emily immediately yelled out she wanted presents! So I taunted her more with “but what kind of presents?” She looked at me like I had just asked the stupidest question and replied “presents FROM SANTA! *duh*” *lmao* So funny. Not what I meant but I got her point. She’s the easy one of the two. Cody began rattling something about a Nintendo DS and added about 15 games to the list. His list was precise and to the point. He knew what he wanted. I had to laugh because a few weeks ago he informed me that he “ordered” <— those were HIS words exactly, a Nintendo DS from Santa. So Christmas day should be interesting :) Let’s see if his “order” arrives *LOL*

Tonight before bed Cody said he wanted to get me a few presents…a wishing box - so I could make a wish anytime I wanted, mosquito spray- so they won’t bother me when I’m cleaning the rabbit cages *L*, a picture - hand drawn that is a secret, a nintendo wii elebits game- so he can teach me how to play, and last a Rudolph the red nosed reindeer ornament- to remember this Christmas. He’s such a thoughtful, or as he calls it “kind and caring” little one :)

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This weekend we watched quite a few movies…(hey! It snowed and was 20 degree’s *LOL*)

1408 - A great movie! It’s based on a Stephen King short story. It has John Cusack & Samuel L Jackson in it. Not a “scary” movie more of a suspense kinda movie I guess. I really liked it :) 9/10

Deck The Halls - blah! A christmas movie…it has Danny Devito & Mathew Broderick (man does he look old now! remember him from Ferris Bueller?)Anyways I can take or leave this one. Basically 1 neighbor drives the other crazy with christmas decorations. This is a movie I can do laundry in the middle of…b-o-r-i-n-g… 4/10

Hostel 2 - I know I swore I would never go there EVER again. I had to. It’s the psychopathic killer in me *LOL* Once again no “known” actors really. Not near as gory and gross as the first one but it still ranks up there for the average horror flick. I knew what was going to happen next (I hate that) but it did have a few twists. Loved the end (probly the grossest part)  7/10

Fracture -This has Ryan Gosling (young hercules!) and Anthony Hopkins. The jist? Did he murder his wife or not? My favorite part “My dick can confirm” *lmao* great movie! 9/10

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OK that may be me going overboard but I don’t think so *L* Let’s start from the beginning…I let Cody pick out a movie at the video store. He chose “Frosty the Snowman”  (Which we have watched no less than 200 times) You know the one they play at Christmas time over and over.  The DVD set is called The Christmas classics circa 1960 - yeah, that’s the one he picks. Out of 7,000 movies he picks that one. Whatever - Fine…I rented that one. So tonight I popped it into his dvd player so he could watch it before he falls asleep. It started out just fine. Until it got to the menu, then whenever I hit the play button it ejected the disc *slight frustration* Thinking I am smarter than the dvd player I pushed it back in and held the play button at the same time *voila* it’s playing. “Frosty the snowman was a very happy soul…” blah blah blah. I told the kids to lay down, watch the movie and relax. I head off to the living room to catch up on email and sit in silence. Not 10 minutes later Cody is coming down the hall asking me “is Frosty a Mexican?” and “I didn’t know you can make snowmen in Mexico!” uhhh I was kinda lost as to where in the world that came from, so I gave him a look of confusion ans asked “what on earth are you talking about?” He explained that the movie is in Spanish. WTF? It was in English when I left. So I head back down the hall. Sure enough - it’s all in Spanish except for the occasional “Frosty the Snowman” that is in English. I stop the movie and the dvd player turns off. Great! So I turn it back on. Now it’s playing mid-movie and speaking English. I hadn’t even hit play yet. Stupid thing…at least it was playing in the right language. 10 minutes later I hear Emily coming down the hall half crying half chanting “Frosty isn’t working!” WTF now? Emily informs me that frosty is frozen. Yeah - he’s a snowman. Not what she meant. Apparently the dvd froze and Frosty’s big face was on the screen - frozen. Kinda freaky looking if I might add. OK so now I know that stop=power, play=eject so for the heck of it I chose ’stop’ nothing happens. I start pushing the other buttons - play, fast forward , rewind, stop, eject - still nothing. Frosty appears to be stuck. So I decided to unplug the darn thing, that always works right? *L* WRONG! Now the darn thing won’t turn back on!  You think it was just the player’s time or did evil frosty break it?! The world may never know…

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Gosh! This week has just flew right by. We brought Anubis in the house last weekend. We are giving it another go at him being a “house dog” and so far so good. He still marks (pee’s) on stuff so I put a belly band on him and that seems to be working out a lot better than expected. Monday we had a short ice storm spell *blah* but it was all melted away by Wens. Tuesday was such a busy day! I took my math final Tues afternoon. As you know I am horrible at math and this class has been the death of me *LOL* I studied by @$$ off and I really did try not to get “test anxiety” but no such luck. I feel like my mind draws a blank as soon as the test begins *ugg* I’m not thrilled but I got a C. Before the test I was hanging onto a B but after the final  I ended out with a C overall in the class. I passed, but I had hoped for a better grade. Math just isn’t my thing! Then I left school and went to Cody’s winter program *proud mama* This year it was on the Polar Express. He was so adorable singing his songs. I videotaped the entire thing and he wanted to watch the video as soon as we got home *LOL* such a ham! Then after watching the video with the kiddo’s I went BACK to school to take my English final. I had an A and got an A on the final so I ended with a solid A *woohoo!* So that was exciting. I’m actually going to miss that class. It was my favorite class. I really liked our teacher and most of the other students were pretty fun to. I left that class and took my computer class final. I got a B on the final and ended up with an A in the class *yeehaw!* so not too shabby for someone who hasn’t been to school in darn near 11 years! Now I’m out for winter break until Jan 14th *happy dance* Then I start full time, basically 4 classes instead of 3. I started my Seraphina shawl (again) so we’ll see what happens with that. Jay has been steady updating his website. It’s coming together, so he’s excited about it. Currently it is 22 degree’s and snowing *yuk* so we are all cooped up watching movies and staying warm this weekend.  So far so good with the heat tape on the rabbit waterer. I’m so glad I’m not having to go out every hour to make sure it’s not frozen *L* ’cause it’s freakin cold! It doesn’t help that I’ve been sick since Sunday :/ I’ve been running a temp, my sinus are messed up and I feel like crap *blah* but I am getting better and I’m done with finals so I think I’ll be good :)

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Ok…So I’ve been hard at work getting my new site up and running. I’m still not 100% sure that I like the format. It’s going to take some time to get enough content together to really make it worth reading, but I think it’s going to be a fun project!

I present to you “The Backyard Beer Guide” My goal is to put together a collection of beer reviews in plain English. No big crazy words like “buttery diacetyl” no poetic descriptions that go on and on about about “light & lofty heads with a nose of elderberries and notes of freshly toasted marshmallows.” Just A simple review of what I liked, what I didn’t and maybe the odd photo of an animal drinking beer. Why should I feel like I need to get a masters degree just to understand the reviews, when all I really wanted to do was enjoy a nice cold beer? So go check out backyardbeerguide.com!

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We watch alot of movies. That’s just what we do. There’s not alot of “going to the movies” with smaller kiddo’s at home so we rent ALOT *L* So I figured I would start a new thing and review some the ones we’ve watched each week :)
This week we watched…

Stay - I’m going to be very upfront and say this was a horrible movie *L* I hated the story line and the camera angles. The ENTIRE time I was waiting for the ending (reminding me of another movie w/Bruce Willis) THEN when it finally got to the ending…uhhh TERRIBLE ending. Overall 1/10 - a horrible movie!

Evan Almighty - Quite the opposite of Stay. I really enjoyed the movie. It was more of a family-friendly movie with plenty of laughs. Overall I’d give it an 8/10

Flight of the living dead - OK so we like zombie movies…that being said I hated this one *L* Bad acting, bad story line…2/10

28 Days Later - Yeah another zombie movie :) This one was decent - not great but not bad. I’m not a huge fan of “fast moving” zombies BUT it made sense because of the fast rate of change so. This movie explains HOW the zombies arrived..sorta *L* 6/10

28 Weeks Later - The 2nd part to 28 Days Later…Once again, more fast moving zombies! This was a decent movie. It was more of a survival type plot in regards to the zombies. I liked this one better than the first. 7/10

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Pam asked…How did we get started with the farm animals?
You know, now THAT is a funny story. The first thing you need to understand about our farm is that this is NOT a multi acre rural area. We live smack in the middle of the city on a normal city lot surrounded by other houses. Yes we’re urban chicken farmers and this is how it began…

A few years ago someone made a website called SaveToby.com in which he posted a pet rabbit on a website that said you can donate money to save him or he was going to die. They were going to eat Toby. This spawned the idea of Cockfight.com. Hubby and a few coworkers came up with a similar plan. We would get some baby chicks and take pictures of them each day. Then after awhile we would do a donate to eat ‘em or keep ‘em deal. Well hubby’s part in this was to purchase and keep then take pictures of the chickens. We bought 3 originally. Two Barred Rocks and one buff Orpington. I named the rocks “The Girls” and the buff “Matilda.” Then they decided we needed to have some “pretty” chickens and we bought 3 Silkie chicks from Estes Hatchery. They lived in our bathroom in an aquarium until they got too big *L* then they just lived in the bathroom (what a mess I might add!) Once they had all their feathers we built a pen outside and out they went. Savetoby.com started suffering financial problems. Their money was being seized by paypal, and they were being attacked by PETA. Which ultimately killed savetoby.com as well as the idea for our own site. So there were were with 6 chickens we raised up in our bathroom that were still to small to eat. So in the process of fattening them up, we became attached. They really do have their own personality’s. They make great pets and lay eggs - when was the last night your dog gave you something you can eat for breakfast? ;)
Over the next couple months we acquired several different breeds of chickens. Then we got into hatching our own and in the process hatched out a few roosters. That was the beginning of the downfall. The following spring a neighbor turned us in. Apparently they didn’t like the rooster crowing at 4am - the whole idea that roosters crow only in the morning is a myth. They would crow if they were scared, if another bird landed on the fence of if the wind blew just right. So we had a visitor from the city with a letter telling us to get rid of the flock. By the way, if you ever find yourself in this situation call them up and threaten to kill and eat them all tonight. That will buy you some time *LOL*
So with a few internet posts we found good homes for all the girls and a few good plates for the boys. That was that.

The next year we started looking into different alternatives. I decided to try chickens again minus the roosters and bought 3 chicks from Estes. I really missed them and missed having the eggs! We still had the incubator and wanted to see some eggs hatch again so Jay bought 125 Jumbo Coturnix quail eggs. In the inky they went and before we knew it we were up to our ankles in baby quails.  That fueled our search for other alternative (legal) backyard pets that served the dual purpose of food/pet. Jay started looking into rabbits. I wanted some sheep to spin wool but knew that would never fly so I looked into wool type rabbits. That’s where how we got into the Angora’s. The process of finding a cheap Angora lead us to the local animal swap. Once we were there we felt like kids at the candy store. So many animals - so little space. We found our angora rabbit (Sassy Red) and 2 more chickens the 1st visit. We visited the swap each month and seemed to find something every single time. The swap meet brought home several pets including Zsa-Zsa - the potbelly pig, the french lop (Walter), 3 Muscovey ducks, Alberta the rex bunny and all the roller pigeons. So far we’ve made it through the year with no neighbor complaints. Since winter is rapidly approaching our animal purchases have stopped so we’ll have to see what comes this spring.

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Alright..So like I said earlier when I met my wife I had neon green hair (Tish & Snooky’s Manic Panic Electric Lizard green) and drove a Suzuki Samurai. While she was a tight wrangler jean’s wearing cowgirl who drove a gigantic ford monster truck. We both worked at the same place (MCI) and worked the same shift, but in different parts of the building.

One day I was cruising the parking lot trying to find a spot less than a mile from the door. I found one in the second row, only the handicap can park closer. Problem was that at the same time I spied it, so did this chick in the monster truck. Knowing that my little Japanese jeep was no match for the monster truck, I gave her the the ‘ole wave ‘n nod to let her know she could have it, but she insisted that I take it.

I knew right then and there I had her hooked. The only reason anyone would give up such a prime parking spot was love. Now I’m not a big believer in love at first sight…but that’s the only thing that would explain why she did it.

Or so I thought. Turns out the spot was just too small for that big ass truck. It was too late. She had already caught my eye. I found out where she sat and it turned out she was on the same team as an ex-girlfriend of mine that I was still friends with. So that gave me ample opportunity to stop by and say hi…which got me nowhere.

But as fate would have it we wound up on the same team. I made damn sure I sat next to her, and she hated me…

You see we were taking customer calls, and we’re required to take “X” number of calls per day and if you’ve ever met me you know I talk faster than the micro machine man which meant I could take a call…goof off a bit…take another call…wash, rinse, repeat. So while she was taking back to back calls, I was making her little paper clip animals, drawing her pictures, basically doing anything but taking calls. I asked her to marry me about every other day…She always said no.

Well…when call volume was slow they would let us go early . I don’t remember how, but somehow I convinced her to go to TGI Fridays for drinks. Apparently I’m a charming drunk, because she would have one little girly drink while I would enjoy back to back ultimate margaritas. For some reason or another she continued to do this anytime we both got to leave early. It became an under-time ritual to head over to TGI Fridays.

Fast forward a few months, we had both been promoted and we were still hanging out from time to time but we were on different teams. Then I found out she was suddenly single. So I decided to try and make that god awful leap from friends to dating…she said she’d consider it.

But who can resist this charm. We started dating around her birthday in September and found out that November that the company was opening a new call center in Houston. She had applied for a promotion at the new site. So I made her a bet. If we both got promotions down there we would get hitched. I’m no fool…If she moved me 1000 miles away I at least wanted half her stuff to show for it if she kicked me to the curb ;) She took my bet and said she’d marry me if we both got accepted.

Around Thanksgiving we both found out we were moving to Houston. Since her new job actually required her to travel for training, I was given the job of wedding planner. I let her choose the day, and she let me choose the place. She wanted to get married on New years eve, which happened to also fall on a Sunday. I found the “Little Bell Wedding Chapel” across the border in Arkansas. The man that told me he could get us our license and marry us on the day she wanted…I’ll save the rest of the story for another post.

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The question is: how did we meet? Maybe I should have Jay type this entry up. It should be interesting! Then I’ll type up our funny wedding story *lmao*

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I would love to live in the country. I also like living in the city. I like to be within 10 minutes or so of a super center walmart and I like to have more than 1 gas station to stop at *LOL* also Sonic at 7am is nice to have around to! So here is what we would like to have…

1. At least 10 acres - more would be nice. Half wooded would be good to.
2. I need good schools for the kids to attend.
3. Neighbors that are to far to be bothered by chicken, goat, or sheep noises.
4. A 3 or 4 bedroom house would suffice. With a wrap around porch would be great :)
5. I’d like storm cellar or basement (to hide from tornado’s)
6. A big barn to house all the animals
7. A pond - that we could stock with fish, frogs and crawfish *L*

I’m sure there are a million other things I could add if I thought about it long enough but those are the basics. Aww someday!

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