Sometimes Haloscan Eats Comments! Use cntrl-c to copy before posting!
It's summer, everything gets hot. Nature as well as people.
And except for extremities it's great, right? 
Yeah, the 50's are almost tempting . . . cause we didn't have full-freakin-time jobs too!
I'm not high-energy enough for today's pace.
Well, maybe the 50s... but maybe, just maybe, you belong more in the 2010s or 2020s. Could it be that instead?
I'm sorry - was this you or ME writing this post?
first of all let me just say this - unless we seriously don't have two nickels to rub together I WILL HAVE AC!!
I go without enough - I REFUSE to be uncomfortable in my own home!! it gets hot and VERY humid here in the summer - if I didn't have my AC I would die.. I would! I would just D I E
or kill someone else haaa
ok
otherwise this sounded EXACTLY like me and Sam - the whole entire exchange... ya know except for the housekeeper bit haaa
one time when I was bitching about him not picking up after himself and I got into the whole I do 'THIIIIS' much and you do 'this' much around here routine - he said to me 'but you LIKE doing housework'
no I don't!! who the hell likes doing housework??
it didn't occur to me to say that what I LIKE is keeping the house nice for HIM!! because THAT is exactly what it is... I don't dislike all housework but it sure ain't my favorite way to pass the day!! I do it to please my man, to make home a nice place for him to come back to at the end of the day
but when I go to straighten up in the morning and I find socks strewn all about the house, bottle caps on the stove (RIGHT NEXT TO THE GARBAGE CAN!) and the recycle bin and or garbage can about to overflow onto the floor (garbage is his job) - I get a little upset... the guy is 33 years old I don't think I should have to CONSTANTLY remind him about these things
~grumbles~ I bet Dave Grohl doesn't leave HIS socks all over the house
anyway - most days I just pick it up (like his mommy did which is WHY he does this today!!) but then there is the occasional day where I didn't get enough sleep or whatever and I let him have it
FYI - if you don't like being nagged.. DO IT THE FIRST TIME and you wont have to be!! 
this is a recurring argument in our house - I've told him time and time again that it makes me feel disrespected and unappreciated when he doesn't pick up after himself
he assures me it's just because he wasn't raised properly haaaa
still - when I see he is not doing his part around here I start not being as quick to do mine - and I don't like that!
anyway - like you, I WANT to make my husband his breakfast and his lunch and send him off every morning with kisses and a smile like Donna Stone (from the Donna Reed show for all you non tv junkies)
I've said many times that I belong in a 50's tv sitcom
when we get into it first thing in the morning and I say I'm not going to make his lunch, I usually wind up doing it anyway because I really do want him to have his special lunch from me instead of some store bought crap that will remind him that I didn't think enough of him to make him something
and I don't let him leave the house without telling him I love him and giving him a kiss
when Ohio friend was 10 her father went off to work one day and died in a motorcycle accident - that has always stuck with me... one minute everything is normal and the next your world could be changed forever!! so it's essential to me that he never drive away from me angry - god forbid that happen to us I would want the last thing he heard from me to be that I love him!
p.s. isn't in funny though - how they will go off without lunch before bothering to make it for themselves?
I swear one month without me and Sam would be sockless and living on keyboard crumbs
I've known plenty of dual-income couples who have ended up getting a housekeeper a couple of times a month because they didn't like what the arguments were doing to their marriage.
People are just stretched so much thinner than they were in the 50's and 60's.
BTW,
I think you should take a picture of your MoB dress on the hanger at least.
You OWE us, Amber.
Question, are you wearing anything UNDER the apron?
I'm just asking because, well, see I don't think ANYONE would have a problem with that!
Oh the heat. At least you HAVE AC. Nobody in my neck of the woods even has it. I mean really, we only need it for about 3 weeks a year. But we didn't get some new fans today! I just think we CA people are babies about weather. We hate the cold, we hate the hot. LOL
We've had the crankies this week too. They say next week will be cooler! So there's hope!
Glad it all worked out in the end!
HUGS!
grace
Amber, I just love you and Dan, you are so human, and happily you sort things.
Even if you are mad, remember that you love them and tell them, it may be the last time you can.
Love and warm hugs,
Paul.
Johan, well, that would be nice if in the future it becomes an admirable role again! And as long as I didn't have to juggle an outside job AND being a housewife. One or the other, please, both together is too much.
Lori, good point on the job thing; yes, my full time "job" would have to be home-making only for me to really enjoy it. As for the dual-income, no kids, this-is-why-we-have-housekeepers, absolutely! We didn't have housekeepers at first because we were too poor yet, even with two incomes. We had terrible arguments because Dan just doesn't "see" what to do and with our personalities, it didn't work very well with me "managing" and "directing" him. Even though I tried my hardest to be laid back. I would be very formal, with lots of pleases and could you please, etc., and he got irritated with THAT approach, too. Said I was taking forever to ask a simple question. So I simplified and then I was being naggy. I couldn't win. Housekeepers definitely the way to go for us.
Kitty, I'm glad you related! I'm sure a lot of wives do, lol! Makes me feel less lonely, that's for sure. As for the AC, our bill can shoot up to $600 quickly if we don't watch it. We have a big house with high ceilings and even though we don't need to cool the whole house, we can't choose just one room. So yeah, $600 is shocking. 
We were thinking of putting in a window AC unit just in the bedroom for nights. We might do that, we'll see. Generally it only gets this hot maybe 3 or 4 times a year for 3 or 4 days each time. It's hard to plunk down $150.00 to $250.00 for a single unit just for those days. We'll see.
As for going off without their lunch/breakfast if we don't do it, yeah, I know, what is UP with that? I already had his apple and pudding cup in the bag with a soda and the sandwich bread was sitting next to the tuna salad I'd made! How hard would it have been to put the tuna on the bread and wrap them up, then take his lunch? But Nooooo! He was bound to leave without out it. *sighs and shakes head* Silly of them.
Grace, you're right, we're spoiled about the weather here in CA! I know it! *grins* As for the apron with nothing under, well, I often do that when it's just me and Dan! ahahah!
Paul, thanks, we love you too. You are a great guy and your comments never fail to make me nod in recognition and smile.
To All: the dress. I don't know why, but I'm feeling shy about posting pics of it. It looks so...old-fashioned for me. I mean it is beautiful on me but...even with it on, I look like my mom! Who was a lovely woman but...I'd rather post my whore-red dress because that's more *me*. But we'll see. I did find a model in it online when I looked up the manufacturer but honestly she looks weird in it to me. And looking at it on the hanger...that doesn't make it show what it is.
We'll see. Let me think about it.
In the meantime, I still have to pick out SHOES! OH NOES! So I'm still searching, not quite done yet, ahahahah! ;-P
Wait...
you get the house ready for the housekeepers?
I don't get it. Isn't that their job?
WOW!! - it costs you $600 to run your AC for 3 or 4 days?? or is that 12 - 16 days??
either way - YIKES!! maybe people around here should quit bitchin' about the cost of electric...
we have very high ceilings too (probably 15 feet in the center) - and one AC to cool the whole house (it's a BIG unit!)
but not big enough - I usually have to run 2 fans as well - one in the living room and basically we have to keep the bedroom door open with a fan pushing the cool air into the room
there is at least one month out of the summer where I have the AC on morning, noon and night - it seriously doesn't get turned off at all - and the two months around that month I have it on more often than not - I usually start running AC in June and don't shut it off for good until mid September - early October (depending on the humidity)
and STILL my electric bill (a 2 month reading) has never been over $250 *knock on wood*
even in our old apartment which was on the top floor of a very old, uninsulated, drafty building, with 15 foot ceilings - and TWO AC's running, it never got over that - - next time I wince at my electric bill I'll think of you guys
oh and Dan is stylin' with his pudding cup and soda - WOO HOO
all Sam usually gets is leftovers - or tuna (he eats like a chick sometimes!) haaaa - get this!
he loves tuna salad on a bed of lettuce (I thought only girls and people who eat in cafeterias ate that crap) hehehe
if he's lucky and I made cookies or something he'll take some of them with him - otherwise he doesn't get any yummy snacks - although he considers yogurt and granola to be a yummy snack - and he takes that almost every day
and if he wants something other than water I usually make him a pot of either green tea or rooibos chai and put it in a thermos for him haaaa
he drives a truck for a living - all the other guys he works with eat burger king, taco bell or deli food EVERY DAY and wash it all down with BIG GULPS (and they wonder why they're broke and sick all the time - but that's another story)
they all tease him about the sissy food he brings but it's his choice
me personally - I would want pudding cups... skip the tuna salad and just give me an extra pudding cup hehehe - I LOVE PUDDIN'
Spring, yes, one must get ready for housekeepers. It's why a friend of mine stopped having hers come over; she hated it so much, she stopped the service, lol!
See, I pay them for a certain amount of time/tasks. And I want them to do the hard, no-one-wants-to-do stuff you do every so often. I do not want them wasting their time on doing dishes or putting things away or other daily tasks I have to do anyway. Also, they don't know where things go and it's always nice to come home when they are done and everything is spotless AND everything is neatly put away rather than they cleaned but stuff is still thrown about, if that makes sense.
For instance, they wipe down the floorboards, wipe off all the paintings, dust the blinds, do the floors (and I have partial hardwood), clean the bathrooms, including the toilets and the shower stall and the big tub and I mean they get IN the tubs and scrub them), scrub the kitchen counters, vacuum, change the bed, dust the bedroom and offices, the walls, etc. etc.
I don't want them wasting time doing daily stuffor trying to work around piled up things like magazines or dirty dishes or laundry or whatever when they are supposed to be doing the major stuff I don't want to do. Does that make sense?
Our goal is always to put things away every time so there is no "getting ready" for them to come but Dan and I tend to get careless over the two weeks between their visits and things kinda pile up. One of these days...
Kitty, no no, it got up to $600 one month when we were using the AC whenever we wanted to, not just for 3 or 4 days. But that's why I hate using it; I know our bill will zoom up to well, something, just because we've used it a couple of times the last few days.
And yes, lol, Dan and his puddin'. heheh...He loves those things. And soda! I can't break him of that either. But I do make sure he eats an apple (the only fruit he will eat *sighs*) and tuna or turkey sandwiches on whole wheat and I mean REAL whole wheat bread not that bread that says "wheat" and you look at it and think...I don't see any wheat, I see a lot of processed flour, though, ahahah!
I could run the AC day and night and still not have a $600 bill!!!!!
So now I'm wondering, is this just a California thing? Do they take advantage of you because the weather is so mild that you don't need to run it as much? So they need to jack up the price more?
Seriously.
I live in a huge house with high ceilings also, and I couldn't make $600 happen if I wanted to!
Nowhere NEAR that amount! You Californians are being taken advantage of!
Sheesh.
Lori - that's what I'm sayin' - I run my AC 24/7 for weeks at a clip and my bill never gets anywhere near $600!! that seems totally CRAZY
Amber - are you sure everything is wired properly?
anyway - I broke myself of the soda habit years ago... and it was NOT easy!!
I started drinking juice with my meals - and sometimes adding seltzer to make it SEEM like soda haaaa
I stopped doing the spritzers because carbonation is so bad for you BUT since the price of groceries has gone up so much I might have to go back to it just to stretch my juice out!!
p.s. Sam pretty much only eats apples too - I CAN get him to do blueberries if I put them in pancakes... or frozen mixed berries in a smoothie - but that's about it
I suppose I should be grateful that he's become so 'health conscious' - when I first met him he wouldn't touch ANY vegetation!! except maybe canned green beans - now he eats LOTS of veggies (more than me even) and has even considered going vegetarian... I told him he'd have to learn to cook for himself if he did that though haaaa
but yeah I still can't get him to eat fruit
seems crazy to me because I NEED fruit!! FRUIT in BIG letters is the second thing (after water) on my grocery list every week - I HAVE to have it!!
Oh, ok. That makes perfect sense. I guess it's just one of those things you don't really think about if you haven't 'been there.'
Kitty and Lori, everything is higher here in CA, yes. And yes, we are being taken advantage of with our power prices, absolutely. Everyone complains but what are we going to do about it? And I know the $600 bill isn't just our house because I've talked to my neighbors about it.
Food may be high where you are but it is sure to be higher here. Gas, higher here too. Real estate higher, probably water bill is higher, probably our damn garbage bill is higher, you name it, it's probably higher.
If we didn't already live here we wouldn't be able to afford to move here.
When our friends who moved to Fl and then to Aus came back that last time in January, they could not believe how much higher food was, restaurants, etc., and they lived in one of THE most posh places in Fl. So, yeah. Very high cost of living here. Our regular PG&E bill if we don't use ANY heat or AC is around $250 a month. That's just lights and computers and the tivo, refrigerator, washer/dryer, Dan's c-pap, whatever. $250 a month just to have regular stuff on.
Kitty, I LOVE fruit too! I can't imagine not having fruit.
Spring, try it sometime and see what you think!
Summer??? It's not summer for another month+.
So, what are you doing for the party?
Amber, speaking from experience, spend the little bit and get the window unit. It's not worth the temper flares. Even if you only use it 3 or 4 days a year, you can cool only your bedroom when you sleep, paying for itself almost immediately with the coolness of your tempers. I'd rather spend the money than fight with my DH over being hot. That's just silly.
HOLY COW!
And you weren't excited when I suggested that solar generator that can power everything in your home except air or heat?!
My God, you would pay for it in four months with just your basic electric bill!!!
My highest electric bill was $221 last August, with AC running day and night in a 3200 sq. ft. house.
Propane for heating in winter is what kills us here, expecially since it went up.
Now I have a question - just out of curiosity.
I realize the weather there is generally the most mild and even in the whole country.
How many days per year would air conditioning make it more comfortable?
I imagine you need it less there than most other places.
Because Mark Twain was supposed to have said . . .
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
Except, he never actually said that, but what a great line!
But here is something Mark Twain DID say in an undated letter:
"I have done more for San Francisco than any other of it's old residents. Since I left there, it has increased in population fully 300,000. I could have done more -- I could have gone earlier -- it was suggested."
Brian, I think I'm going to do placemats with LOLCat pictures on them with Lucy's kitties and funny sayings. Flowers and some candles. And leave it at that.
Lucy's driving me nuts, though, we're trying to surprise her and she's getting all bent out of shape at us saying we're having a little dinner over here. Wants to go out to the surprise restaurant, offered to pay for it all when I said no one could afford it, GAH! Why is she so stubborn? Where did she get that from? ahahahah! *winks*
Jules, we may do just that. Of course right now the weather is fine again so we don't want to spend for a stand alone AC unit. So it goes. The argument wasn't that big of a deal and probably if the heat hadn't brought it on, something else would have. The housework is a constant irritant for us and always has been. Every couple has something they tend to not agree on and that's one of ours.
Lori, those units wouldn't make sense for us; Dan looked into it and said we'd have to buy several of those units since they only run *one* item at a time. Like one unit would run the fridge. One unit one computer. We have SEVEN computers. So...yeah. Dan didn't think it was very cost effective, which is why everybody doesn't do it, I suppose. Plus there was something else about it he didn't think would work, can't remember now but he nixed it. Probably the noise; I'm really sensitive to the "hum" of electronics. We already have so many things humming in the house as it is. I had to unplug my stand alone wine cellar for instance. I left it on for a year and it drove me nuts every time I heard it; it's quite loud. Anything that runs like that puts out a certain amount of noise and I hate it. So we keep our wine in there but I unplug it. Oh well.
two people have seven computers but can't see spending $100 on an air conditioner?
*knock knock*
everyone has their priorities I suppose hehehe
out of curiosity though - what did you pay for the unplugged wine cellar?
speaking of the hum though... thanks to the hum of the motors in the store where I worked, I have a lovely PERMANENT hum in my ears... I can't stand total silence because all I can hear is my stupid ringing ears and it drives me CRAZY!!
seriously the instant silence strikes I start talking to myself or singing or doing ANYTHING that makes noise to distract myself - I don't even realize I'm doing it half the time
but if there is one humming machine in this house that I absolutely CAN'T stand, it's this idiot box!!
I can't imagine having SEVEN of these fuckers humming in here - I'd start blowing stuff up!! haaaa
Well, remember, I use my computer that I'm on right now for work; it belongs to the winery, not me. This is my job, so yes, it IS very much a priority. I make my living with it.
Then there is the other computer for my work which is a "gateway" so the tasting room can connect to my computer; we can't do it directly because well...we don't want to. I have personal stuff on here too. Again, the gateway in the kitchen is a priority and I support my job with it.
Then Dan does a great deal of website work and creative stuff, too. Which brings us much needed extra income. So he uses a PC and a Mac and again, they are very much a huge priority. The only computers in the house that are not absolutely necessary is the kitchen Mac, which is one of those little units they came out with for $400 a couple of years ago, and the laptop which is quite old now and which we bring outside when we want to write outdoors. I guess that's just six, I thought we had seven. Oh well!
As for the wine cellar, it was a gift from Dan for my 50th BD. I don't know how much he paid for it but it was his gift to give me if he wanted and I loved it that he did. We just didn't realize how much noise it was going to make but it's still a lovely gift.
seeeee - ya have so many computers ya can't even keep track
do those smilies = snarls of frustration for me questioning your choices? hehehe
cause I'm really just being silly and bustin' on you
ah, probably a little forced-grinning was coming out. It's because work is busting my ass today, too many people want a piece of me and I'm stretched thin ("Stop...calling...me....") hehehe; god I can't WAIT for tomorrow! I'm taking tomorrow off and Lucy and I are going to Sonoma for lunch and doing some wine tasting and just being silly together for one last time before she's a mature married lady and all that.
I wrote this piece for grins and now it's turned into Advice for Amber Time, ahahaha!
I know everyone means well and I love attention and I do love advice, both giving and getting, so pay me no mind. I's just a little cranky today.
/back to my customers who are being a little more obtuse than usual...oh well...kill me now, please. ;-P
Hopefully I'll get to blog at some point! Not that I have a lot to say, but yanno...when the hell has that ever stopped me before, hmmm? ;-P
Huh?
Well, I can't remember for sure, but I thought the site I recommended was www.kensolar.com
If so, one unit produces 1500 watts, so you shouldn't need one per appliance.
Plus, they are silent.
Now I'm wondering if that was the same site you looked at.
??? I don't remember.
Your customers are being obtuse because Mercury just went retrograde. Communications are off.
I know, I know, you don't BELIEVE!
I don't care. I think you act just like an Aries. And I should know, my sister is one.
one of the things that makes me the most crazy is people giving me advice I didn't ask for - especially when I was just venting
something as simple as saying it's too fucking hot in my house today - shouldn't open you up for a world of people telling you to change your ways hehehe BUT it does I guess... one of the downfalls to sharing your thoughts with the world ~sigh
it makes sense that this sort of thing would bug me - because I am ALWAYS giving people advice they didn't ask for (in case you didn't notice) well actually just trying to be helpful by saying how GREAT my way is - as if MY way would be great for EVERYBODY (y'all know my current situation ain't no great joy)
when people do that to me relentlessly (like I know I can be) I grin and nod and when they turn away I mentally kick them in the ass haaaa
so next time I'M doing that - feel free to tell me you'd like to kick me in the ass now hehehe
of course I have a feeling you'd be saying that to me a lot haaaa
now if you REALLY want to enjoy your day tomorrow - let me tell you what I would do...
p.s. BIG BIG HUGS - I'm glad your getting tomorrow to enjoy with Lucy and just relax - you deserve it
Lori, Dan won't do it, he has his reasons and if he wants to say what they are, he can because that's his call, not mine. As for the astrology, weren't you reading me back when I was asking everyone to guess my sign? *NOBODY* guessed Aries, ahahahaha! I know someone was really into astrology and they didn't guess either. I thought that was you? I'm too lazy to go look up the comments; I can't remember which post that was or when. Although once I told people I was Aries, they all said, "Oh yes, of course!"
That's because Hitler was Aires too and we are VERY much alike. ;-P hehehe
Anyway, it doesn't matter. I blogged again!
A NEW ONE YOU CAN ALL PICK ON! Go ahead! Tell me not to shop where I shop or Rose wine is going to kill me or remind me to wear sunblock when I swim!
No no I LIVE for that stuff! ;-P
/laughs and grins
Kitty, I love giving advice too, you know I do, I didn't want to kick your ass. heh.
Okay, maybe a little...nah! I KEED! heheheh
Don't change. Just stay you. I couldn't bear it otherwise.
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