Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Argh

The winner for the VW#4 Mega Left Behind Goody Bag is Zillin, who should e-mail me at LynnViehl@aol.com with your full name and ship-to address.

As for the argh, no, it's not talk like a pirate day or anything. In the last three days:

--Two of my cats, Jak and Jeri, have the uber-hairball blues and both are completely silent when they leave a deposit for me. Usually in a high-traffic area where I step on it first. Neither will swallow the treatment stuff the vet prescribed without use of claws. My forearms look like I've gone ten rounds with a Cuisinart.

--My car A/C went bye-bye and nearly took out the compressor (thank you, Ford, for putting that florescent dye in the freon charge at the factory, but next time do you think you could make it a color that doesn't look exactly like antifreeze?)

--My dryer has stopped drying clothes. It makes a new, kinda catchy thumping sound, though. The dead garage door opener makes a nice clothesline anchor. The appliance repair service may or may not get here before we run out of clean towels.

--The garage door opener died because it blew out a coupling that takes a week to get from the only parts place in town. Which must be changed out while I stand on a ten-foot ladder and hold a flashlight in my teeth, because the appliance repair service doesn't do garage door openers.

--I have one week to finish school shopping, no school supply lists yet, and two kids who are between sizes, have my duck feet and must wear wide-toed shoes of a very specific color and style or "everyone will think I'm a dork, Mom." P.S., they both utterly loathe trying on things.

I don't mind managing a crisis or two. Even three. But five? Calgon better take me away tonight or else.

I will catch up with the VW questions this week and add links to them to the sidebar. In the meantime:

Required reading for all submitting writers: How Not to Piss Off An Editor.

ABA, BookSense and booksellers: The Written Nerd's guest bloggers have some cons and pros.

Amazon.com rank watchers can now go seriously nuts while comparing the 2% of their sales to someone else's 2.1% with Title Z.

And one for Scott Oden and the other ancient history lovers out there: Michael (no relation) Kelly's Alexander the Grate.

18 comments:

  1. [insert laughing smiley here]

    Thanks for the chuckle, PBW! I needed that :)

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  2. Hey, thanks for letting a guy who just had shoulder surgery on his primary arm feel like things aren't so bad after all :-)

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  3. Anonymous1:12 AM

    Good 'ole Murphy at work.

    As for school shopping...Already? (whine) Didn't we just start summer? (sigh) There goes this month's budget. Hope things get better soon.

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  4. You have my sympathies.

    Here's what works with my cat. Wrap a towel firmly around your feline leaving only the head exposed (almost like you're swaddling them). If necessary you can almost sit on them while focing the jaw open and the medicine down. They hate it (of course) but it works and is much less painful and bloody for the caregiver.

    Sorry to hear about the duck feet. My DH has them too but at his age he's not so picky about his shoes and since he always wears the same ones I get to order them online.

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  5. Erm... just wondering: if you live in a sunshine state and it's summer, why are you using a clothes dryer? No clothesline, maybe? Just... you know... curious... an' all...

    You have my sympathies for your disasters, though.

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  6. It takes two, baby.

    One person to hold the cat and the claws and the mouth open, the other to grab the scruff of the neck back (so the cat is less mobile)and administer the meds.

    I just went through this a few weeks ago for deworming.

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  7. And I'm not calling you a baby.

    I just had the tune playing in my head. lol.

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  8. You're having entirely too much fun. What? No horrendous deadlines for two or three books hanging over your head? Or is that just routine?

    Sympathies. I hope it all smooths over soon.

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  9. Anonymous9:32 AM

    Congratulations, Zillin! :)

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  10. Just as long as the hairballs don't have legs.

    The Grate was hysterical. Thanks for the laugh.

    And cat scratch fever isn't just a bad song by Ted Nugent, so be careful. ;)

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  11. Nothing like stepping in a hairball on your way to the coffee pot. Hope all your appliances are cooperating soon and you don't run out of towels.

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  12. Wow. When it rains it pours. My cats leave hairballs all over the place. I'm always stepping on them.

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  13. As for the argh, no, it's not talk like a pirate day or anything

    For the record Talk Like a Pirate day Is September 19.

    Hope things get better soon.

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  14. Anonymous3:39 PM

    Congratulations to Zillin on winning the goodies, and thank you PBW, for the fun of all the contests.

    Duck footed writers unite. Let's all move to a warm and sunny place with perfect sand, and go barefoot. mmm.

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  15. I feel your pain. I just walked out to my car and it wouldn't start. :(

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  16. Anonymous6:55 PM

    Yowza! Thanks to PBW for picking me, and my fellow posters. My car compressor broke last month, and my outdated printer has just decided to mutiny against me. =( I am alternating between jumping up and down for books and cussing a blue streak for the printer. I'm real glad I don't have cats right now. =D

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  17. My sympathies to you. I don't have cats, but I do have a dog with intermittent digestive troubles. For some reason, she prefers to throw up on the very few square feet of carpeted space in our house--as opposed to the vast expanses of hardwood and tile, which would be much easier to clean up.

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  18. I hear ya sister! I’ve been without AC in my minivan for a month now because the rearing of life’s sometimes ugly head kept getting in the way of my appointment with the mechanic. Unfortunately, I do need a new compressor, so it’s no quick fix.

    My mother reminded me that in the old days, no one used to have AC and that got me through for about a week. Then I’d see someone standing in the sun waiting for a bus and I quit bitching for a while longer, but come Hell or high water, I’m keeping my appointment Friday morning!

    I find the fumes and highway noise that sear the brain to be more bothersome than the Florida heat. Hope you get yours fixed soon, but in the meantime, Walgreens have these cute little multi-color fans you can coordinate with your attire and hang around your neck that make little to no noise, but just make sure your hairs in a ponytail (HA)!

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