Office cat, Nelson, has shed a few pounds.

No, he didn’t run on a treadmill or take the latest miracle diet pill. He got his fur shaved. Now a slightly lighter cat, Nelson is spending a lot of time on employee laps, trying to stay warm. Why did we do this? Besides the fact that he actually tolerated it, his skin needed a little airing out. Once his fur grows back, he’ll feel much better.

Thursday Thirteen #42

In looking around my unfinished house, I was wondering if there was a way to speed up the process of making my home look Cutting-Edge and have Superior Design. Here are my ideas:

13 Creekistan Interior Design Trends

1. Unfinished walls are now In. Being able to see some or all of the drywall is very hip. Especially if you can see the drywall screws.


2. If unfinished walls are not quite your thing, then ripped wallpaper is a great alternative. If you have existing wallpaper, rip some of it off, leaving lively chunks of color still attached. If you don’t have wallpaper, you can attain the same look by hanging new wallpaper, allowing it to dry, then ripping it off.


3. An added touch would be to allow children to write on your walls.


4. Ceilings have always been neglected in design. No more! Interesting designs in ceilings include portions that are “discolored”, falling, or where texture is uneven. This style makes for interesting design effects and breaks up the monotony of potentially bland ceilings.


5. Keep lighting fixtures simple. Exposed wires and bare light bulbs give a home a highly “technical” look. Plus, it makes changing light bulbs quick and easy without having to hassle with dangerous glass covers.


6. Keep the odors “natural” in the bathroom. No more do you need to attempt to mask smells emanating from the septic system. It reminds everyone that a bathroom is a bathroom and the smells are part of it’s “charm.”


7. Floorboards are extraneous. Part of the charm of wood or laminate flooring is being able to see the raw, uneven edges of flooring near the base of walls.


8. Carpeting on stars poses quite a few problems when it comes time for cleaning. This problem is eliminated when you eliminate the carpet. Dirt, hair, and small toys that accumulate in the corners of stairs are then easily vacuumed up.


9. Don’t be hide your messy closets behind doors any more! By not installing doors on your closets, you create a more open atmosphere in your bedrooms.


10. Why clutter your living areas with furniture? They collect dust and get in the way of running children. Only furnish rooms with items that are absolutely necessary for minimal comfort. For example, a living room with only a futon allows for more open space.


11. Why does everyone think they need separate bedrooms? In Creekistan design, all family members enjoy the benefits of sleeping in one room, leaving the extra bedrooms available for storage of building supplies, unused paint, and extra flooring.


12. Balance out the simplicity of your Creekistan-designed home with a complex color scheme. Don’t limit rooms to simply one or two colors. Allow old paint to show through new. Let ripped wallpaper reveal the antique colors underneath. Test new colors by painting just a swatch of new paint over old. Perhaps you’ll like the effect and not finish painting the rest of the wall.


13. Don’t be afraid of people looking into your windows, especially those on the second floor. Eliminate the hassle of window coverings by allowing the beauty of the window to speak for itself. Don’t cover your windows. Allow the sunlight to shine in and your beautiful design to shine out.




If these design trends become popular, I’ll have the most hip house in Creekistan, and I wouldn’t have to do a thing! (. . .looking up number of Country Living Magazine to arrange a photo shoot . . . )



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. ItÂ’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thursday Thirteen #41

My Take on 13 Recent News Headlines

1. A Shout Out to Nancy – In The House! – [link] Nancy Pelosi is the first woman Speaker of the House
   
   
2. Negroponte Has Left the Building to Get Rice – [link]
   John Negroponte resigned as National Intelligence Director to become deputy secretary of state under Condoleezza Rice.





3. Busta Busted – [link]
   Busta Rhymes been ordered to pay $100,000 dollars to a fan who claimed the rapper attacked him.





4. Whitney's Throne on eBay – [link]
   Hundreds of items belonging to singer Whitney Houston have been sold at auction at a warehouse in Irvington, N.J., after she failed to pay storage fees.





5. Miers is Flyers – [link]
   Harriet Miers stepped down as White House counsel.





6. Teach Robotics AND Clean the Floor! – [link]
   iRobot, those people that created the vacuuming robot, has made a version that people can easily tinker with.





7. Dita Von’t Teese Marilyn – [link]
   Marilyn Manson and Dita von Tesse divorse.





8. I Smell New York – [link]
   A mysterious bad smell came over New York. Many people blame New Jersey.





9. 5 Minutes to Boom – [link]
   The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the Doomsday Clock to five minutes to midnight to warn the world of the dangers of nuclear weapons.





10. Will Joost be a Boost for TV? – [link]
    Joost tries to combine the best of TV and the best of the Internet by offering viewers a unique, TV-like experience over the internet. Personally, I can’t wait. But since I can’t get either TV or Internet at home, I’m screwed.





11. Snowbirds Regret Flight – [link]
    Trying to escape the snow in the north, Snowbirds usually go south for the winter. But a cold snap in California, Texas, and other usually warm places has made these people wish they were back home.





12. Shetty-ing Tears for Big Brother – [link]
    Possible racism in Europe’s Big Brother TV program has Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in tears.





13. Don’t Throw Viagra to the Animals! – [link]
    A female chimp that has been in a “old Chimps home” sanctuary has given birth. But all the males there were supposed to have been fixed! Now paternity tests will have to be given to find the culprit.










Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. ItÂ’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thursday Thirteen #40

I have been participating in the Thursday Thirteen Forums. I posted a message on there with several ideas for topics or themes that people could steal if they were stuck. Well, here I am on Thursday, stuck for an idea of a topic. So I took a page from my own book:

13 Things About the 13-year-old Amy the Black

1. After watching The Outsiders, I was inspired to color my hair with peroxide. My hair turned orange.






2. I was a huge Duran Duran fan.






3. I watched so much MTV that I could name the artist, song, and album of a video before the text would appear in the bottom left-hand corner. It was a game I would play. But that was when MTV played Music Videos all the time.






4. I always had a VCR hooked up and ready to record. I still have a few tapes that capture MTV during it’s early days.






5. I was a good clarinet player. In fact, I was considered one of the best in my age group in the area.






6. I had a really nice 12-speed bike that was black, red and silver. I used to ride it everywhere I could. I kept the bike until about 5 years ago. I hadn’t used it in ages, but couldn’t part with it, either.






7. I collected unicorns. Anything with a unicorn on it was good enough for me: stickers, posters, figurines, purses, t-shirts, etc.






8. I was active in Girl Scouts. I belonged to a small, but close-knit troop. We weren’t into the uniforms and formal stuff. If we had to go to a city-wide event, we looked more like the Bad News Bears. But we didn’t care.






9. I wanted to play synthesizers in a Rock/Pop band, just like my idol, Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran.






10. I got a Yamaha keyboard for Christmas. I was thrilled, even though it wasn’t a large-scale keyboard. I still played it all the time.






11. I had started to collect LPs of the music I liked. You know, actual vinyl records. But I figured out a way to record them onto cassette so that I could play them on my Walkman.






12. I was 13 in 1983. Okay, so now do the math.






13. I was a fan of of the TV show, M*A*S*H*. I was 13 when the show ended with it’s record-breaking and haunting final episode. I cried. One scene in particular has stayed with me ever since. It is the scene where Hawkeye is in a bus filled with refugees trying to hide from an enemy patrol. Everyone on the bus knew that they had to be absolutely quiet or they might all be killed by the North Koreans. A mother was holding her baby, when it started to cry. She smothered her child.





Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. ItÂ’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The Final Stinkbag Update

The dog warden is going to make a stop at our place to pick up Stinkbag. We decided that she has too many issues for us to take on right now. For one, she stinks, which leads me to believe that there may be something wrong with her. Secondly, Bandit doesn't like her. She's too old and grouchy to hang out with a 1 year old, energetic dog.

Since the dog warden may arrive when we are gone, we had to describe to him which dog to take. It shouldn't be difficult: the old, stinky, funny-looking female dog.

Don't forget to fumagate the truck when you're done!

Stinkbag Update

Stinkbag, the dog, is still around. I finally was able to stomach being close enough to find out that Stinkbag is a girl! Me and my husband have the tendency to take on animals that are in their final stage of life. We’re thinking of keeping her.

Pudding

Leah and Pudding

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