402: eating Jim Crow

hey y'all.

when i went to yahoo this morning, there was an article about racism in the U.S. and how differently blacks and whites see the issue.

which got me to thinking...

for as many strides as colored folk have made (and continue to make) in the good ole U.S. of A., if you're one who believes that racism is dead in this country, i'd like to know what pile of sand your head rests under.

i'm not talking about white folk being prejudiced against people with dark skin. people discriminate against other people all the time, for many reasons. and i'm not talking about the olden days of "whites only" signs and fear of the KKK riding down on you.

i'm talking about the very real institutionalized racism that is "business as usual" in this country, usually covertly. (so okay, maybe some really aren't aware...)

but something i learned when i studied Buddhism, that i recall every day: your life will tell on you.

and to that end, here's an article that gives a really good example of how some in our glorious nation are really living and how some are trying to force others to live:

Jim Crow -- The Remix

wake up people!

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401: busy bliss

hey y'all.

wow, i haven't blogged since sep. 10 but it seems like months since i've been here.

we bliss have been busy.

school is back in session and that always brings change, change, change to the house of bliss.

the biggest change is going back to a semblance of bedtime.

in summer, baby bliss is allowed to stay up late. i'm a night owl by nature and i suspect she is too. except that most times i can stay up all night, get 2 or 3 hours of sleep, and hit the ground running at wake up time.

baby bliss is more like my momma. even when they go to bed at a "decent hour", they prefer to laze around in bed for as long as possible the next day.

i admit that i was a homebody for much of the summer but i'm not a bedhead. if i'm in bed past 9 a.m., it's cuz i was up past 6 a.m. from the night before.

so any way, baby bliss and i joined a home schoolers group and we've been hanging out with them and having a high ole time. we also joined girl scouts and expect more fun to come dashing around the corner any minute now. ;o)

mr. bliss has been working his narrow tail off. he's been doing a lot of overtime to make up for the time when there was no overtime.

i'm proud of him. a man should work his fingers to the bone to take care of his family. *wink*

my momma and stepdad came down for a long spell a few weeks back. they left yesterday and took baby bliss with them. my momma convinced baby bliss that grandma is a nicer teacher so i packed up that rascal and sent her on her merry way.

but i know she'll be back sooner than i can toss her room for all those broke-necked barbie dolls she's hiding and hoarding. so i'm enjoying my freedom as much as i can.

this morning i was up at 8 and out of the house early to run my friday errands. usually we're doing school work so we don't get out until late afternoon.

today i was out before noon and got a ton of stuff done in 2 hours' time. *cheeeeeeeeeeze*

now i'm at the library. i was relaxing until i got a phone call from mr. bliss.

he hath summoned me home for dinner and a movie.

i'm outta here.

have a good weekend folks.

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400: bus stop babies

hey y'all.

school has just started and already there have been many reports on the news about incidents at the bus stops.

scariest so far: an adult -- who had no business on the bus -- stood at the bus stop with the children and the parents and hopped on the bus with a bunch of middle school students.

and no one said a word. i believe he rode all the way to school with them.

later, it was revealed to have been a prank by a local radio station personality.

supposedly, charges will be/have been pressed.

um, yeah.

and?

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399: flash drive delight

hey y'all.

technically savvy little minx that i think i am, why in heck didn't i know that a flash drive can also be used to boost hard drive performance?

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398: more organizational skills required

so i put the one unit together saturday night.

after, i pulled stuff out of the closet so i could put the storage unit in the closet and put the stuff on it.

hmph!

the storage unit wouldn't hold all the stuff that needed a decent place to live. and that one unit looked very lonely too.

sunday, i decided to return to target for more units. this time i fiddled around with the tape measure before i left home so i'd have a set of guidelines for my planned purchases.

wouldn't y'all know that when i got to target on sunday, i still couldn't make up my mind about what to get? and the unit i'd bought the day before was no longer on sale. :o(

i did buy one though. i also got one of the horizontal shoe shelf storage units.

according to the measurements i'd taken, once assembled, everything would fit perfectly into the space where i needed it to go.

ha!

this universe is such an interesting place to live.

after i put the two additional units together, it was time to get them suckers in the closet.

which took a lot longer -- and more sweat -- than i anticipated.

ya see, i didn't figure in the spacing of Things Already in the Closet. nor did i realize the closet opening had several inches of outside wall (on both sides) that took up space needed to put anything wider than 18 inches inside the closet. (the bottom shelving was 24 1/4 inches wide; the space in the closet was 24 3/4 inches wide.)

after an extended bout of groaning and grunting in my effort to either move the wall or shrink the storage unit, i realized i either had to explore other options or undo the darned thing and return it.

then suddenly ding ding ding ding ding!

it came to me how i could get the thing in the closet without using witchcraft or having to tear down the closet wall: i needed to get to the wall space above and beside the bookcase.

there was about thismuch space between the far wall and the bookcase already in the closet. i scootched the bookcase over as much as i could then i moved the (2) metal baskets on top of the bookcase, a precarious venture cuz one was already overhanging the bookcase by several inches and i didn't want to take the baskets out. (they're interlocked at the bottom.)

miraculously, i was able to squeeeeeeeeeeze the thing in sideways by starting at the top of the closet wall. as i moved it down the wall, it fit... it fit... it fit!

no.

it got stuck.

a few inches from the floor.

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

i forgot about the darned molding that starts about 4 inches from the bottom of the closet. but it's only on the side walls and not the back. *sucking my teeth*

whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!

i ain't never been a girl to give up easily and that wasn't the time to make an exception.

i put my foot right above that shelf and i stomped.

et voila! it fit.

yeah!

putting the two smaller storage units on top was a piece of cake.

when i showed off my closet to mr. bliss later, he remarked that it looked like a "real crafter's closet".

*big grin*

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397: back to school

hey y'all.

tomorrow will be our first day of school for the 2008-2009 year.

i just realized i am missing a few things but nothing major. still, i don't feel like summer vacation should be over already. i know baby bliss feels the same. 'specially since she'll be in bed at 9 tonight.

i told her 10 minutes ago to "get ready" for bed. that means brush teeth, wash face (and other pertinent spots), get clean jammies, and be ready to get in bed at 9 p.m.

she's already given me the evil eye several times since then. as if i care.

and she thinks she's slick. she came back to the living room, laid in front of her bookcase, and picked up a few books. so i'm supposed to think she really wants to read one. um yeah. i don't doubt it but i know it's a ploy to delay bedtime for as long as possible.

ha!

if she can squeeze a chapter or two in before lights out, she's more than welcome to read anything she owns. i told her to set her alarm clock for 9 a.m. and that's what i meant.

she is so blessed to be home schooled. i have seen small children in this city -- babies, really -- standing at bus stops in the dark. with other little ones, no adults in sight. scary.

aha. she just turned on the telly to watch "deal or no deal". but what do i see? she has on the same night clothes that i told her not to sleep in last night. bad choice baby bliss.

oooh, no she didn't!

when i told her to go change, she got an attitude, rolling eyes, lotsa lip, and stomping. like she pays rent here!

now see...

okay, it's light out time.

i just told her to come back, turn off the telly, and good night.

now.

it's quiet.

mr. bliss got called in around 11:30 this morning and i'm the only one up and around.

ummm, she just got back up to "get some water". and is still wearing the same pajamas!

the jonas brothers posters will be missing when she wakes up tomorrow.

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395: getting it together

hey y'all.

i spent some of this weekend organizing the closet in my office. it's where i store my crafts stuff and that space was just getting out of hand.

shortly after we moved in, i bought two of those inexpensive sauder wood-look bookcases to go in my office. i hate the flimsy backings that go on those things. so i did the measurements and went to home depot (alone) to get a big sheet of plywood (?) cut to fit the backs of the cases.

(i had no idea that they would make me buy the whole sheet, they'd cut it, and then offer me the leftovers. of course it makes perfect sense but how was i to know before i knew? mr. bliss thought i was nutty for bringing the leftovers home but i paid for it and why should i leave it there for them to re-sell or recycle?

any way, if/when i get my staple gun, i can cover one or both leftover pieces and make a table top for the balcony or something similar.)

so back to this weekend.

one half of the closet -- or maybe that's 3/4s -- looked neat and the remainder looked crappy. and i couldn't find things when i needed them. bum-mer.

additional storage units seemed to be the answer.

walmart and target's websites didn't yield the prices i was looking for but i decided to go to target in person. although walmart usually has the cheapest prices, target sometimes has good sales on those things.

saturday was my lucky day because i found just what i was looking for and it was on sale. but i'd left home without measuring the remaining floor space in the closet so i had a hard time deciding which piece would fit.

*sigh*

eventually i settled on a smaller piece, knowing it would fit with space to spare.

home... anxious to begin transforming the closet, i wanted to assemble the unit right away. i opened the box, laid out all pieces and parts, then went in search of a screwdriver.

*screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech*

take the needle off the record.

there was no screwdriver to be found in nary a crack nor crevice.

*pffffffffffffffffffffffff* (me, blowing out hot hissy-fit air.)

mr. bliss had just given me the screwdriver a night or two before, when i did my "tighten up" rounds of all the door screws in here. but somehow it disappeared.

frustrated, i left the pieces in a pile on the floor next to mr. bliss's open tool box, hoping he would get the hint when he came in from work cuz i didn't plan to be here.

(turns out he didn't plan to be here either. he'd gotten paged in to work in the wee hours of saturday morning and didn't return home until well after dark.)

in the meantime, baby bliss and i carted our packs off to the library until closing. then we came home to drop off some things and call a friend who wanted to go doggie walking with us.

i packed some veggie burgers, sweet potato fries, baked beans, a bunch of condiments, and a box of tea to take around the corner to auntie's house, where we would be walking the dog.

my plan was to make iced tea and put the burgers on the grill while the girls fed and walked the dog.

good that i'm a "roll with it" kinda girl. cuz y'all know that nothing went as planned right?

murphy's law in action:

1. baby bliss's friend was scared of the dog and screamed shrilly every time the dog came near. which made the dog bark, which made the girl more scared. by the time she calmed down, we'd been there almost 30 minutes.
2. which led to me forgetting to put on the water for the tea.
3. auntie's grill was dirty and i didn't want to clean it.
4. the girls did not want baked beans or fries so i didn't cook either side dish because i didn't want to cart leftovers home.
5. it wasn't until after i put the water on that i discovered that although auntie has an ice dispenser on her fridge door, there was no ice being dispensed that day. and we didn't have enough time left for the tea to cool off in the fridge or freezer.
6. we were supposed to get a phone call from the girl's dad letting me know it was time to bring her back home so she could go to a farewell dinner with family. wouldn't y'all know it, my phone did not work at auntie's house. which resulted in a rudely-executed extraction mission by the girl's older sister.

as we were pulling out of the driveway, my cousin (who lives next door to auntie) came out to say hello. she and i chatted for a few minutes about family stuff. by then it was full dark.

my grandma says baby bliss and i like to "travel at night" and we sure do. instead of heading home, we headed over to grandma's to get her mail because she was up north visiting my momma.

we finally dragged our tails home, where i waited for mr. bliss to come home and reveal the location of the screwdriver.