Just the facts ma'am, the Friday facts.

Here it is Friday and I have errand upon errand upon grocery store upon birthday party to deal with today so I just have time for the facts this morning.


Weds. night when I went to kiss blonde rascal one more time and turn off all 7 lights he must have on while falling asleep, here is how I found him...

Oh joy! Coming from a mom who would rather read than breathe, this is a sight for sore eyes! Yep he fell asleep reading, it looks like an interesting selection of, car and truck books. That's the way to do it son, always be surrounded by books. Always.

We had a cold front come in a few days ago and....brrrr. Here is how we handled that last night...

Oh yeah baby. Blonde rascal and I laid in front of the fire under quilts and read stories. Good stuff.

Speaking of fires, I am delving into my first Craig's List selling experience. Yes, this fireplace screen...

is going on Craig's List this weekend. (Foggy picture, I think my camera was frozen which I will explain shortly.) I like it, but while having fires in the fireplace you have to move it. So it is in the middle of the living room or you put it back on the hearth but then you have to move it again to put more logs on the fire. Plus hubs thinks, as all men do, that we need to put a flat screen on the mantel. If that turns out to be the case then there would be too much big stuff in the fireplace vicinity. So the screen is out. I hope this is not the weekend some nut job serial killer decides to choose his next victim from Craig's List.

Speaking of reading, for book club this month we are reading "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. It was my choice so I hope it doesn't suck! It is about a woman who has a breakdown during her divorce and decides to take a year off and spend 4 months respectively in Italy, India and Indonesia.

I am currently in the Italy part of her story. I think I am Italian. I mean sure the Anglo genes took over at some point giving me stringy dirty blonde hair, a ruddy redish complexion, no real cooking ability, but I do have a love of red wine. That surely is a sign of some Italian heritage, no? OK so if I am not Italian I at least need to visit Italy. In her book Gilbert explains how the Italians think the Americans have the inability to relax into sheer pleasure. Americans really don't know how to do nothing. Oh really? See, THIS American does and I am so proud of it which leads me back to maybe I really am partially Italian. Gilbert's Italian friend says the Italians are masters of "il bel far niente." Which means "the beauty of doing nothing." Now the friend explains the Italians are indeed hard workers but they believe that "The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement." I don't need a family tree, I know now I am some percentage Italian. I am the master of basking in the glory of nothing!

Lastly, I will leave you with another one of these stories...

(Missy the wanna be cow dog joined me on this fun project this morning. I don't know about you, but I don't know if I would want to be that close to the ground out there! PEEEEE-UUUUU stinky!)

As I have explained before, it all starts out like this. Hubs is halfway out the door leaving for work and he says "Oh, by the way can you do me a favor?" My eyes glaze over and I squeeze my coffee cup not knowing how to respond. Which does not matter, he needs no response because as he is shutting the door he says..."I think the steers water trough is a "little" frozen, so would you mind going and breaking the ice?" The door is now only open a fraction as he calls out "ThankyousomuchIloveyouseeyoulaterBye!" Click. The door is shut.

So, I mentioned it was cold. Yes a deep freeze the past 2 nights. A "little" frozen my ass. So I pile on some clothes, take my miniature wanna be cow dog and head outside.

Missy's first stop is to pester her friends the barn cats...
"Hey, just wondering, do you guys get cold out here at night while I am sleeping in the warm bed with my people?"

Yep, here is the a little frozen steer trough...


Here comes the first thirsty steer...
"Silly white girl, chop-chop. I am parched!"

I go to hacking on the ice with a hammer. Which is no easy task since the "a little frozen" ice on the trough is 3 - 4 inches worth!

Yes it was a work out. Which is all for the better since I opted to not hit the gym this morning. Sweating swinging that hammer, I was. Happily though, now it will be a full on WITH fat order at Starbucks tonight! WIth whipped cream no doubt.

As I am whacking away, freezing with ice chunks spitting all over me, mumbling and grumbling...I remember hubs "get out of the doghouse for at least one year" surprise he gave me for Christmas...

I took off my glove and tried to show this dude my sparkler but I am afraid he could have cared less.

As a crowd gathered around me, and being that I always like to stir up a little controversy, I told the steers that the horses water troughs are heated. "Yeah, you heard me...h-e-a-t-e-d! I'm just sayin. That is really not fair"

This guy was pissed off about that...

"Dude. Did you say heated? What about our equal bovine rights? I am gonna start a protest."


Sadly, his rights did not concern me at the moment. I was still trying to get them to look at my ring...

"WAIT, stop would you just look at it? Please, then I will go inside with my frozen camera and leave you alone!"



"SLLLLLUUUUrrrrrrrrppppppp"

Did I mention that hubs is going out of town this weekend? There will no doubt be more to this story before the weekend is over! I am going to deserve a trip to dadgum Italy.

I am in a hurry now with all of this nonsense that just cut into my errand running time. No time to check for grammatical errors. Be kind before judging my incorrect or lack of apostrophe use today. My brain is still thawing!