- May 12, 2012 & chores -

I just don't understand. I was a completely different personality when I was a teen, so I don't understand! These "kids" are 18 & 22, yet all they do is play. They came home last night & jumped right onto their computers to play games. Meanwhile, ALL their chores remained undone. The poor pets weren't fed or taken care of at all & this morning they had NO food available to them. We have to lead these adult children around like they're 5 years old. "Do you have to go potty? Are you sure? OK, let me take you to the potty ... OK, there it is. Now go potty ... OK, now pull up your pants. Flush the toilet. Wash your hands. Are you done? You're sure? OK." That's how it feels ... EVERY DAY ... EVERY CHORE. They're EIGHTEEN & TWENTY-TWO! I am SO sick of this! When will they GROW UP?! When will they care about the pets? Their home? Their surroundings? WHEN?! EVER?! At least my 15 year old cares more. I think he cares more about me not kicking him off the computer for the day for NOT doing his chores, but at least he cares about SOMETHING. The older ones can't be grounded. I can't get Pete to lock out the Internet from their room. Even if he did, they would just spend 4-6 nights a week at someone else's house & play all day. I'm going to be supporting 40 year olds ... I see it coming. :( :( :( Honestly, I wouldn't care if they lived here until they were 100 if they were working participants in the home. By working I mean at least one of them has a job outside the home & helps with the bills, maintenance, repair, & upgrade costs, while the other helped inside the house by doing chores, maintenance, repairs, & upgrades. Even if both worked outside the home ... fine. But SOMEONE has to work. Those working outside the home STILL have to work inside the home. Single people do it every day. They go to work & then come home & clean their home & feed themselves. It CAN be done. It's not one or the other, you need to do BOTH. No, a job outside the home does NOT exclude you from chores, maintenance, repairs, & upgrades. Just think ... if everyone played by MY rules (HA!) ... we'd have 2 men working outside the home & contributing to the bills of the home which would mean both would have more money for fun than if they did it all by themselves separately with 2 separate homes. We'd have 2 women working on the house daily as far as cooking, cleaning, maintenance, repairs, upgrades, & home businesses. This place would be a beautiful JOY for the men to come home from work to. We'd have a male in high school who is gone during the day & then comes home, does his homework, helps with the chores (even MORE beautiful home for the hard working men to come home to) & then everyone has even more time to do the things they enjoy ... hobbies, fun, games AND the house is beautiful! The hard working men come home from work to a nice meal both women worked on together, everyone eats dinner together ... then the men do a couple chores (we're up to 5 people who have worked on the house today at varying times ... can you say cover of Better Homes & Gardens with minimal effort PER person?!) Then on the weekends everyone contributes to not only chores, but maintenance, repair, & upgrades. What a beautiful home we'd have ... there would be more time & money for fun for everyone, & we'd all be so much happier. So how does it work now? I do chores & then yell about how no one else has done theirs & how no one cares about the home they live in ... all they care about is their games. The house is a wreck, it desperately needs cleaning, maintenance, repairs, & upgrades ... but everyone is happily playing on their computers. Yes, I know, I'm on a computer right now ... but this blog is only 1 of almost 40 things I do EVERY DAY. I blog, yes ... but I also do chores, run a home business, take care of the cats, take care of the dogs, cook, clean, garden, etc. On a much cheerier note ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY XOCO!!!

4th-generation NASCAR driver Adam Petty dies in crash (2000):

On this day in 2000, 19-year-old Adam Petty, son of Winston Cup driver Kyle Petty and grandson of National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) icon Richard Petty, is killed after crashing into a wall during practice for a Grand National race at Loudon, New Hampshire.

The young Petty was the first fourth-generation driver in NASCAR history. His great-grandfather, Lee Petty, a pioneer of NASCAR racing, died in April 2000; Adam Petty competed in his first Winston Cup three days before his great-grandfather's death, finishing 40th. The young Petty was in his second season in the Busch Series and was planning to move to the Winston Cup circuit full time the following year. In his 29 starts during 1999, he posted three top-five and four top-10 finishes; his best was fourth place in the AutoClub 300 at California Speedway (which in 2008 was renamed the Auto Club Speedway of Southern California). In 2000, Petty's best finish was on April 15, when he came in 12th place in the Touchstone Energy 300 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. 

Petty's death occurred around noon on May 12, 2000, at the New Hampshire International Speedway, during a practice session to qualify for the following day's Busch 200. According to an NBC News report, his car crashed head-on into a wall while traveling at 130 miles per hour. Petty was airlifted to Concord Hospital, where he was pronounced dead of head trauma.

Just eight weeks later, driver Kenny Irwin died at Loudon after crashing into a wall at 150 mph, almost in the same spot as Petty. As reported by The Chicago Tribune, speculation about the reason for the crash focused on a stuck accelerator, which would have kept Irwin from slowing enough to make the turn. A stuck accelerator was also believed to be the reason for Petty's crash, though NASCAR was unable to verify that information. Though some drivers criticized the track, the Tribune quoted Richard Petty, who said it was just coincidence that his grandson and Irwin were killed at almost exactly the same spot. "Those things are circumstances beyond human control," Petty said. "There's nothing the matter with the racetrack. It's circumstances with the way you stop that thing so quick. Your body just can't stand it."

Despite any promised safeguards, on-line dating services can vary greatly, & security measures & client etiquette can often be considered "under construction." The following tips should help subscribers get the most for their investment of time & money:

• Use a reputable service.
• Be honest when writing your profile, & post only an up-to-date photo.
• Respond when someone contacts you, even when you aren't interested.
• If someone uses inappropriate or offensive language, don't reply.
• Protect yourself by not giving out any personal informatiuon.
• Arrange 1st meetings in a public place & limit the duration.

Envelope system is simple. It's just grandma's old-fashioned, common-sense way of budgeting money.

EVERY time you pick up a pot on your patio, you find a pill bug. You should get rid of these mischievous rascals as quickly as possible before they do a lot of harm, right?

Wrong, probably. Chances are they won't do much damage.

Pill bugs, like their cousins the sow bugs, have hard, dark gray or brownish segmented bodies about half an inch long, & if disturbed, they roll into protective balls. They are crustaceans, related to shrimp.

Pill bugs' favorite food is decaying matter. They do their feeding at night, & if their numbers are minimal, they do no harm. Problems arise if their numbers grow so large that they increase their menu to include the fine rootlets of young plants. If that happens, the best control is to eliminate the moist, dark areas under flower pots, boards, or rocks, where they like to hide during the day.

Hummock:

1: A rounded knoll or hillock. 2: A ridge of ice.

Cattle & sparse vegetation dot a rolling landscape of hummocks & shallow valleys.

This word 1st appeared in English in the mid-1500s as an alteration of "hammock," another word that can be used for a small hill. This "hammock" is not related to the "hammock" used to refer to a swinging bed made of netting or canvas. That "hammock" comes from the Spanish hamaca, & ultimately from Taino, a language spoken by the original inhabitants of the Greater Antilles & the Bahamas. The origins of the other "hammock" & the related "hummock" are still obscure, though they are related to Middle Low German hummel ("small height") & hump ("bump"), another word that can mean "a small hill" or "hummock."

If you don't have enough carbohydrates in your diet, you can suffer from fatigue, lack of energy, short-term memory loss & vitamin & mineral deficiencies. Linguine with clam sauce, anyone?

Is there any reason why you can't grow tulips or other bulbs in tubs on your porch?

Kitchen:

Store your plates, bowls, cups, & silverware as close as possible to your dishwasher. This makes unloading the dishwasher quick & easy.

Match the song to the band / musician.

1. "Mama Said (There's Be Days Like This)"

2. "Your Mama Don't Dance"

3. "Mother & Child Reunion"

4. "Take Your Mama"

5. "Motherly Love

a. Scissor Sisters

b. The Shirelles

c. Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention

d. Paul Simon

e. Loggins & Messina

myHomework:

Teachers not letting you use your phone in class? Parents on you for missing assignments? Show them you're organized with myHomework.
With myHomework you can easily know what's due and when so you will never forget a homework assignment again.
The free app includes:
- Track your classes, homework, tests, assignments
- Time & Block based class schedules
- Beautiful calendar display
- iPhone Retina display support
- Multitasking support
- Universal (Both iPhone and iPad)
myHomework is also available on the web so you can quickly sync and access your homework from your computer at myhomeworkapp.com
With the optional $1.99 online account you get:
- Sync to your iPhone, iPad and Android devices
- Access anywhere, anytime at myhomeworkapp.com
- Receive homework reminders on your device (notifications)
- Facebook Single Sign-On

Nonstick cookware:

Cleanup is a snap, & you can use less oil & butter.

Reach For Me:

When his new hospice roommate -- 25-year-old Kevin -- moves in, the quiet life of senior citizen Alvin turns upside down. Forced to escape Kevin and his girlfriend, Alvin meets free spirit Valerie and discovers he still has much to learn about life.

What is kept in an arctic “doomsday vault” at the end of a tunnel hundreds of feet beneath the permafrost on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen?

Seeds. The bomb- and earthquake-proof Global Seed Vault was designed to help humanity recover from future disasters and/or to help restore plant life destroyed by genetic modification.

What sports venue was the first to sell its naming rights?

Which character was created 1st, 2nd, & 3rd?

A. Jolly Green Giant

B. Paul Bunyan

C. The Giant in "Jack & the Beanstalk"

CBA. And, hey - don't you love to say, "Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!? I sure do.