14 Peeves and a Ramble

• Any cat or dog allowed to run loose, breeding wantonly. And then the owners get mad because I can't take in their "carelessness" and they dump the animals to fend for themselves. It's not the animals fault, people!

• Raising taxes on a yearly basis when it's clear the property values have gone down. I and most others cannot sell our property for what the taxing authorities say it is worth. Not even close. But you are allowed that 5% because of Prop A and absentee owners.

• People who automatically say "Oh I would never do that because I am a god-fearing Christian" but will molest, steal and stab if you aren't looking and then deny or say it can't be them as it's not in their demeanor (I can show you a state prison full of these liars)

• Portion sizes in casual restaurants-I am not an army. If I can only eat 1/4th of what you put on my plate and ask for a doggie bag as soon as the food is presented to me, isn't that a clue? Offer half portions or let me eat off the kiddie menu.

• People who take more than one newspaper from the box but only pay for one (or just as bad, reach over my shoulder as I put my coin in and take one, sometimes the last one-and laugh about it)-access doesn't mean a free-for-all to the contents.

• Seeing the same 5 sets of stamps and same paper company used on every one's blog for art. If that is all anyone is using, what is that saying about what the companies are selling? Either there is a shortage of quality or too much to begin with and it's time to cut back in the catalogs or online stores. It's all looking the same to me. Because it is!

• Police chases from Florida or California every day on CNN, MS-NBC, Headline News or Fox (I am just assuming on Fox, but probably true). What makes the news programmers think because someone has a helicopter and can follow these morons in a car, that the entire nation needs to see the cops slow speed follow up the freeway, and then wrestle some idiot out of the car everyday? Are we all waiting for a self destruct, gun-to-the-head-end exploding in Technicolor on our plasma TVs for a thrill? Is this the result of colossal ratings from OJ years ago? Or are we all hoping for the worst possible end just to say we saw it? Sadly, several people died recently trying to bring us this crap. It's NOT news!! It is happening everyday. So make a channel called real time police chases and make it a pay channel.

• EBay sellers who charge for Priority mail and some extra, then send it parcel post or first class and pocket a lot-and that free box from the PO turned inside out didn't cost a dime (they say it's for packaging) or having wrapped it in a priority bag but it's inside and no one knows until its opened. And charging for delivery confirmation but using online postage and DC is free if it's printed there.

• The pop bottle return machines at Kroger-the machines are always full or broken after I put in a few but have taken all the bottles out of the bag I brought them it. Meijer's machines reject my bottles as if they are foreign. VG's are wonderful, so go there!

• Weight machine hogs at the gym-your name is not imprinted on it and signs are posted. You are not entitled to a half hour on the bicep machine. And wall vibrating grunting doesn't mean you are actually doing anything positive. You are just calling attention to your pot bellied self. Get off and give us a turn.

• The History Channel-there is more to the past than wars. I personally see enough war in real time TV-I don't need to watch hubby snore in front of this anymore. How about the history of education in the US, or the history of brain surgery or the history of organic gardening. Or change your name to the War Channel.

• Grab bags-that are all little kid scrapping things. I wish the assemblers would write on the box or bags something to identify age or sex. I got a grab box today as I have from this same woman every year and its all baby/little kid stuff. I have neither and cannot use anything in the box except a pen. I will have to give most of it away and am out 50.00. Not on my list anymore for her boxes, which in the past have been glorious. But her attitude has changed a lot too-my inquiry was answered back with surliness.

• Lottery tickets-if I spend a dollar (and I only do when it's over 100 million), I want at a least one number-that doesn't get me anything but nice to at least have something match. Time after time after time, I have nothing. Is it a conspiracy to me or is it like that for everybody?

• Socks-I always buy white socks but not the same brand or style. But hubby thinks they are. So either I have one sock tall and one sock short matched up or he gives up and throws them in the bin for me to do later. Or the best one, he matches up socks that have an obvious defect like a huge hole in the toe. The sock fairy is not gonna fix that, I guarantee.

• Being brain dead for ideas. I have a project due the 30th and cannot do anything with it. I have tried over and over, getting out the paper, ink, stamps etc. I can't come up with one viable idea for it. I am limited to one color card stock and several other patterned pieces, but they are not matching in my head.

• Okay. I have an extra one I just figured out. Blogger's spell check sucks! It does not recognize contractions as needing to be fixed. Outlook and Word fix them fine but not Blogger. So if you see some weird words like wont-its because Blogger did not recognize them as misspelled. And I didn't see them in time.