Spring is nearly here, I think so going through my cupboards

It was a beautiful day today! Kids played outside and Andrew tagged up one of the dining trays with, "I <3 Remi." So cute, hopefully his parents don't make too much fun of him. But it was really cute.
Went through my cupboards, they look well stocked

but most of it is junk food. Gotta love my daughter. Lots and lots of cereal, I do love cereal. But nothing really to cook a meal with on the fly. My other cupboards coming up later this week. Trying a new drink V8 Fusion berry pomegranate. I love pomegranates! Lots of packaging in that cupboard, Amy would not be pleased with me. Check out Amy's blog on how to go green, thegreengarbageproject.com. The link to her blog is on the left. Take a gander at the books I'm reading right now. The widget, Shelfari is really cool and easy to put on your blog.
I feel as if my blog no longer is about the Suburban Omnivore. I don't talk about food enough, so I am going to try and change that. Hence, the cupboard pictures. Sort of a way for me to see what I have and what I may need. I would love to be more like my friend and former colleague Amy Korst, who lives the green life. But it is so much work and well while I love working, becoming more green is a process for me. I'm doing better, I recycle with the mixed recycling bin and I return my beer bottles for cash, ok not religiously, but I do eventually get them to the bottle return. The pop and beer cans get put in the mixed recycling, though I think Matt's broken truck is nearly full of plastic, sorry Amy, garbage bags of pop and beer cans. That is about it for the recycling. It certainly does cut down on the amount trash we generate, though I have to admit that I do throw into the trash far too many half eaten yogurt cups. I sometimes actually rinse them out, but usually not so much.
As spring gets herself into gear, I'll do more foraging. Still trying to figure out if I am going to cook some dandelion greens. One of the facebook pages I follow has a recipe, may try it. I've got dandelions all over the damn place so I think I could gather up enough for something. Most of my foraging will of course be at the local fruit and vegetable stands. I will be traveling down the coast at the beginning of May for a job interview and I am going to try and find some new places.

End of the day

A fairly relaxing day. Made a late late brunch for Andrew and Lauren, eggs, toast, fried potatoes (or taters as Lauren calls them), and bacon.
Andrew and Lauren played ok today. Andrew is becoming a tween and is forgetting that Lauren is only four, so he must be reminded from time to time.
Meagan made me so angry today, I always hold my tongue because I never know if its the big M raising it's head or just me. So, she calls and asks if Andrew wants to come down to see two of their (Brandon and Meagan) friends. Andrew lounging on his bed watching toons with Lauren says no. I say to Meagan give me a minute I'll talk to him and she says back to me, No! We're leaving! I come to find out that Jesse was there and the kids of their friends. She never said that to me. So, what do they do? They go have a great fun day and end it at the pizza parlor playing laser tag. As you can all see I am still angry, which gives weight to the big M, more than me. Though I can hold a grudge for a very long time.
I am just so angry. It is as if she really didn't want him to come along and kept the fun stuff to herself knowing he'd rather stay with me and play with Lauren. A cleansing breath does help. I know for Meagan it is a balancing act, because Andrew is her step-son. Jesse never comes down here for the weekend or even just over night. Of course, Andrew doesn't ever go to his step-grandparents overnight either. Part of that is because Andrew lived with me for nearly a year when he was little. Andrew doesn't have the rich grandparent unfortunately for him, but he does have his own room here though Lauren has sort of taken it over. I worry about him far more than I worry about Jesse and that really bothers me, really really bothers me. I love them both so much.

Tax day

I must complete my taxes this weekend. I have waited until the last minute since I have had to pay my taxes. No reason to get them done in January when I'm not getting any money back right?
This year is going to be very very hard to pay those taxes. My unemployment doesn't even allow me to pay my regular bills, how am I going to pay the two to three hundred in taxes to the state and irs? Any time you pay them in installments you have to pay interest. I wonder if the grand Congress will ever get around to reforming that? They can't agree on a general budget. That is what scares me more, the cuts they want to make. The Pentagon gets a raise and the rest of the us who are struggling are losing even services. The soldiers are the only ones who deserve any kind of raise. Married a soldier a lifetime ago and the pay then was sad and should have embarrassed Congress. I am guessing it is still embarrassing. The men and women who defend us, rightly or wrongly, they are doing their jobs what they have been ordered to do and should get paid accordingly. Ever been on an service base? Again, a lifetime ago, I lived on one. The every day soldier got the ghetto housing and the officers got the middle class housing. At least at Ft Lewis, now called umm, Ft Lewis McCord Joint Base, not sure of the spelling or which goes first. Just as my divorce was getting going the housing situation began to upgrade a bit. Nice housing, again dependent upon your rank. Remember rank has its privileges.
The debate about bases goes on and on. Personally I don't think we should be in Korea, Japan, Germany, etc. We should upgrade our bases at home and maybe reopen a few, but we shouldn't have permanent bases outside the US. I so do not want to be in the same group as Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity. Trump or Palin either for that matter. But if I have to then for this opinion, I will hold my nose and tongue.
Currently, I am watching a documentary on HBO about guns. I don't particularly like guns, they are loud and they kill living things. I am not against hunting. I am not particularly against open carry either. I am not against handguns or rifles. What I am against is automatic weapons for anyone except police or military, well and only when any of them are on duty. Automatic weapons are here for only one reason and that is to kill people. Any idiot who says that they need an automatic weapon to go hunting is an idiot. Did I say they were idiots? Only idiots want to shoot something that can't shoot back with an automatic weapon. The NRA is always quick to say that the mass shootings are acts committed by criminals. But how did the criminals get the guns in the first place? Oh that's right from other criminals or from gun shows where the private citizen can sell anything to anyone.

Lazy days and Thursdays

I sometimes think I must disassociate or something. It's already after 5pm and while I remember the time ticking away, it seems to have gone by so very quickly. I actually accomplished a lot today, well job search-wise anyway.
I sort of have a system one day I search through edzapp, which is the open teacher jobs website, and then the government open jobs. Well, Marion County, Salem, and the state of Oregon. Switch back and forth on alternating days.
Got a letter from the Employment Department telling me to come and discuss, "your current work search, your reemployment prospects and other job search activities." If I don't attend the meeting I could lose my benefits. Right I've been looking for five weeks and they think, what? What exactly do they think? Do they make all those who are getting the extended benefits prove they are actually, wait, "actively," looking for a job? I probably spend each day looking for work. It isn't like I'm getting this money, a huge sum, for just sitting around and doing nothing to look for a job.
I have never been without a job, ok when I was married and when I was going to college, but I haven't been on the public dole since my kids were little and I was forbidden to go to college. It is all very surreal to me.
There are probably people out there who are just filling out the form each week and not actually looking for work, but how many are out there? I've even applied to jobs outside of education, but still nothing.
I am struggling to pay my bills, no way would I not want a job so that I can relax just a bit.
The next huge question of the day? What to have for dinner? Sigh...

Other blogs

Just tip toed through some other blogs and I am wishing I was more creative. Maybe I am and just don't know it. I've added two to follow. As usual I am likely talking to myself, but coming here and writing is making me feel lighter. Does that make sense? It is a way to unburden myself maybe? Get that chip or monkey off and onto paper, er... cyberspace. I think it is probably time to talk about books I am reading or have read recently. Chosen by a Horse by Susan Richards is a must read for horse people.
I'm getting ready to read Shimmering Images by Lisa Norton. Not a memoir but a how to memoir book. Waiting for it to arrive at the library, if it's good I will buy it for my kindle.
I love my kindle. I also love reading paper books too, but the kindle is so dang handy to just drop in my purse or computer bag and take with me. I think there are about 100 books on it right now, some I got for .99! That was a bad day, bought about ten of them for .99 to about 1.99. I think my last purchase, for more than 1.99, was Tears of a Clown I really don't like Glenn Beck, and Dana Milbank does a fairly even-handed job of describing Beck. Well, I think it's even-handed, so being a Beck disliker, I don't hate too many people, so disliker is better for me. Anyway my opinion is obviously coming from a person who thinks Beck is an idiot. The sad thing is, he doesn't fit the idiot profile because he is on TV with his own show and making bank.
Other books on my kindle Another cool thing about the kindle is that you can download samples of the books you may want to purchase for free. For me that is great, because I am stuck with books I thought would be good, but aren't. My strategy is to download a sample and then if I like it check it out of the library. Then if I can't put it down and want to keep a copy for myself buy it. Convoluted yes, but it works for me and since I am still unemployed gives me something semi-productive to do. Unemployment annoyances are for another posting.

Dogs

I had ribs last night and so rib bones. The dogs love them bones, they do they do. This morning I had to lock Destiny and Trixie in their rooms so the little dogs, Sabby and Emma, could munch. Emma gets a bit possessive, but Sabby is a good boy and just goes and hides until he has stripped the bone of its yummy bits. Now I have naked rib bones laying on the living room carpet. It is a good thing that Lexi is not here because I am thinking she would chewing on those bones too.
Lexi and her family left me alone to go house sit for the other grandparents. I miss them terribly. My beautiful girls on their mom's birthday.

Wave Cable

While I had issues with my previous Internet and Cable provider, Country Cable, I am having more issues with Wave Cable. I have had a number of problems since the take over was announced with the service. On the 18th the cable was skipping and the Internet was working fine. On the 31st I lost single for four channels. Yesterday first my Internet went out and then Showtime and TMC channels went out. I called on each of those occassions and got a person out here only once. The excuse I keep getting is that, "We haven't switched all the way over, blah blah, yada yada." Well if you weren't ready to switch over I guess you shouldn't have fired all the Country Cable service guys. They weren't the most notable of service personnel, but they at least called and asked if there was still a problem. I have gotten zero, yes ZERO, call backs from Wave Cable. I shall say it again ZERO call backs.
I am sick of their excuses. It isn't the call peoples issue, it is a Wave Cable issue. If they didn't have the man or woman power to accomplish the takeover then it shouldn't have happened with no backup plan for servicing Country Cable customers.
I guess we'll see. I have already made my annoyance known to people around my neighborhood who don't have all the services that Wave Cable will be offering. They are all second guessing whether to drop their satellite coverage for Wave Cable.
Customer satisfaction should be number one, I would hate to think that I am the only one who is not getting the service I need.