A Tale Of Two Blogs

Click on my photo to the right to link to Churly Girl, the home of my two blogs:

Is The Party "Swing By" A Snub?

Click here to get the story at Ask Ava

Nightmare Neighbor

From Ask Ava at http://www.churlygirl.com/

Dear Ava, We have moved to a new neighborhood, and our next door neighbor has become an obtrusive burden. Sometimes I look out and find her weeding my flowerbeds. If I’m ever working in my yard, she won’t leave me alone. She talks to me until I go back inside or until I let her help me. The annoying part is that when she helps, she tries to be the boss and tells me what to do. I have caught this woman looking in my windows, and on one occasion I was getting dressed when she was peeping! Once, she saw me inside when she was looking through my windows, and yelled that she “had a question” for me. I told her to go home and use the telephone. She has not gotten our hints at backing off, so what should we do? -Jeff

Dear Jeff, It is time for you to view this annoyance as a legal situation. Keep a log of your neighbor’s trespassing and peeping. Stop “hinting” and lay out some plainly explained rules for your neighbor. Post a no trespassing sign. Tell your neighbor that the next time you catch her looking through your windows, you will call the police. Explain that her behavior is creepy and is a violation of your privacy. Then follow through with your threat. If she peeps in your house again, call the police. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to maintain any sort of casual relationship with a person that doesn‘t understand normal boundaries, so your best bet is to keep cool and distant. If your neighbor approaches you when you are working outside, tell her you are busy and don‘t have time to talk. When she lingers, say goodbye and go back inside. Even if she returns when you resume your yard work, repeat the same response. Eventually your neighbor will understand than you wish to keep your distance. Stay civil, but aloof, and explain that you value your privacy when she asks why you are being distant. Lastly, consider getting any of the following: block out window coverings, a guard dog, a lockable privacy fence, and as a last resort, a restraining order.

photo credit: http://creativecommons.org http://www.flickr.com/photos/figgenhoffer/3928220528/

End Dog and Bun Disparity

I know that we do not live in a perfect world. My new Ipod won’t recognize my Bose docking station. The cell phone reception at my house hovers at one bar. Peanut butter eggs are available for only one month out of the year. Life’s inconveniences are certainly to be expected, but our country suffers from a miscommunication that we should no longer tolerate.

There are ten hot dogs in a package but only eight hot dog buns per bag. In order to get the bun and dog quantities to match, a person would need to buy five packages of hot dog buns and four packages of wieners. That’s forty hot dogs. I set out to understand why, and googled the problem. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council states that originally hot dogs were sold loose in the butcher’s case and today they are still sold in increments that are “to the pound” . Most packages are ten dogs to the pound. The NHDSC also claims that bakeries like using a pan that bakes four buns connected together. When they put two of these units together, it makes an eight count package. Other internet sources shared additional theories on the origins of these configurations, but I couldn’t find any good reason why the bakers and hot dog makers have not gotten together and picked one number for their product count.

It’s time for the bun industry and frankfurter industry to get on the same page. Please join my cause. I’ve formed a Facebook group to gather some support on this issue. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=120067331341702&ref=search&sid=100001049643429.4176318249..1 If this link doesn't work, search for the group "end dog and bun disparity".

Ask Ava: Hold the Fries...and the Burger

excerpt from Ask Ava at http://www.churlygirl.com/

Dear Ava, My husband and I grew up eating junk food. Our parents rarely cooked and we ate mostly processed meats, chips, candy, and lots of fried foods. Now that we have children, we eat organic, natural foods. I know that when the children go to school they’ll be eating all the things I don't allow. For now, though, I think it is important for my children to have a healthy foundation of eating whole foods-and not junk.Sometimes my parents watch our kids and they always come back with a bellyache. It really steams me that my parents ignore my wishes and take my kids to fast food chains. I’ve asked my mother to please refrain from feeding them junk food when she is watching the kids. How should I address this? -Joy

Dear Joy, Let it go. One of the perks of being with Grandma is getting spoiled. Let your children eat some off limits foods from time to time. Instead, see if you can negotiate what goes into the kid’s meal at the “burger joints“. See if Grandma can swap a milk for soda or fruit for the fries. My guess is that Grandma and Grandpa are providing free babysitting for you, and while you see it as a violation, they are still doing you a favor. A day of crummy food isn’t going to undo your children’s healthy lifestyle. And, as you said, you won’t always be able to police your children’s diet.

photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/ / CC BY 2.0

Sick Day TV

except from http://www.churlygirl.com

The cold that I had been nursing moved into my lungs and kicked off my own personal “March Madness“. Every year I get sick in the spring and the doctor confirmed that I had bronchitis. Medication was an unusually rigorous chore, as my condition was deteriorating just as my pharmacy was undergoing a similar meltdown. They were happy to take my prescription, but their phones were down and could not file my insurance.
I returned home, exhausted, after visiting another busy pharmacy. Restricted airflow was slowing my brain , I turned on the television and flopped on the couch. Wheezing, I blinked and weighed the option of continuing to watch “Celebrity Rehab” verses getting back up and digging for the remote from the recesses of the sofa. Blink. Wheeze. Blink. I had to find the remote. The “sick day” is a failure if a remote cannot be located.
This event underscored my belief that television programming is in great need of a new channel. Please allow me to propose Sick Day TV. Ideally, SDTV programming would consist of slightly dumb movies that everyone has seen multiple times. This would allow for a nap in the middle of a film, without creating confusion for viewers when they eventually wake up and return to the movie. SDTV should be free of subtitles, laborious plots or anything else that would tax the brains of sick persons. To accommodate those with an upset stomach, graphic violence, shaky camera work and frantic action should also be avoided. In addition, commercials should never air at a volume that is louder that the movie that they interrupt.
Possible movies could include:

• Problem Child


• The Princess Bride


• Captain Ron


• Romancing The Stone


• True Lies (yes this is an action packed movie, but the action sequences appear mostly in slow motion)
  　

　photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/phrenzee/ / CC BY 2.0