I am so annoyed...

...Have you ever have one of those conversations with someone in your family? I had one with my dad last week. He actually blamed me for my sister not answering her phone when I call her.

Yes, Yes, Yes. I did have a few choice words to say to her about what she should tell her husband. She cheated on him. After he left her. He left because he thought she was cheating, she wasn't, she wanted to. Then he left.

I told her she should tell him when, though I didn't know if it would make any difference. She says she wants her marriage to work but then she went out and committed the most foolish of errors. Her husband deserved to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Anyway, dad skewered me and said that I abandoned my family by moving to Australia. It was my choice, yes indeed it was, but I certainly did NOT move here to abandon my family. I moved here to marry my Aussie hubby. This is where he lives and so now I do too. I don't consider that abandonment at all.

So, back to dad. He told me that the reason no one calls me, answers my calls (somewhat bs since my mother and sister (E~) call me on occasion...I do happen to be the one that calls most often. 1) I call E~ because she truly cannot afford international calls on her cell phone, and it's the only phone she has; and 2) my mom can't remember her own purse when she leaves home.

My family is strange. I accept that. If I didn't then, well, let's not go there. I accept it. They expect me to call, write, stay in touch, etc. They always have. *slightly Gallic shrug* No problem.


What I do not accept is the "abandonment theory" dad has hit me with. He is the one who feels abandoned because life is all about him as far as he's concerned, therefore, he takes it out on me. I'm annoyed. Well, more like pissed off, but I'm getting to be merely annoyed now.

Someone please tell my dad that it's NOT all about him. Maybe if someone else tells him he'll get the picture before he dies, when it really will be all about him and then it will be over for good.

Rotisserie Style Chikkin in a pot...

...Crock Pot, that is. It was beautiful! Tender, juicy, and quite lovely. I made mashed taters and gravy with the drippin's and steamed some asparagus to go along. All in all a totally smashing dish and one I'll certainly make again. Before I give out the recipe let me just say that I got it from Stephanie's Blog and here's the recipe: (I have included her entire page with pics as she is the owner of this recipe and I want to be sure to give her ALL the credit! Thank you, Stephanie!)

The Ingredients.

--1 whole chicken, skinned (4-5 pounds)
--2 tsp kosher salt (if you'd like it as salty as the ones in the store, add another 1 tsp.)
--1 tsp paprika
--1 tsp onion powder
--1/2 tsp dried thyme
--1 tsp Italian seasoning
--1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
--1/2 tsp black pepper
--pinch of chili pepper (probably not necessary)

--4 whole garlic cloves (optional)
--1 yellow onion, quartered (optional)

The Directions.

I used a 6 quart crockpot for a 5 pound bird. It fit nicely.

Skin the chicken and get rid of the neck and other stuff from the cavity. This takes a while, and is gross. Keep small children away so you don't freak out about salmonella. I skin whole chickens because I hate the idea of the chicken fat simmering all day in the crock---it also looks disgusting when the chicken is cooked because it's all slimy and icky.

I get it that I'm weird. If chicken skin makes you happy, then by all means, ignore me.

In a bowl, combine all of dried spices. Rub the spice mixture all over the bird, inside and out. Plop the bird breast-side down into the crockpot.

If desired, shove 4 whole garlic cloves and a quartered onion inside the bird.

Do not add water.

Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 8. The meat is done when it is fully cooked and has reached desired tenderness. The longer you cook it, the more tender the meat.

****
Me again!

I did mine for 3 1/2 hours as I had a smaller 2 pound bird, made it skinless and most certainly put it upside down on it's breast. This seems to keep the breast moist since there's no skin for that and what juices are released (about 1/4 cup or so for mine - I kept them to make gravy) and it also keeps the breast bathed in it's own juices while cooking. Please visit Stephanie's blog and try some of those awesome recipes! I can't wait to try more.

It's Sunday...

and it's one of those days where the Winter chill is in the air in the mornings and evenings. It's the kind of night where I want to settle in with a bowl of Cream of Tomato soup and a grilled ham and cheese sammy.

Alas, hubby is sick and craving pizza so we ordered from Eagle Boys. Loveliest pizza we've had from there yet. BBQ meat lovers, a margarita style on thin crust, and a pepperoni pizza are what we ordered. Good Lord a'mighty! We'll be eating pizza all week! I think we had 3 small pieces each.

Now I'm off to check out the new show Merlin, then Masterchef. I'm hooked on Masterchef!

I dream of being good enough to do something like that, but unfortunately I'm not.

I missed the Fish Market Episode so I'm trying to catch up as I write this. I'm in a huffy, LOL!!! Next episode begins in an hour and Merlin is on NOW!!!! grrrr.

Week 3!!!

I'm at week 3 and can now give a "1 Hour" massage in 1 hour and 20 minutes. I can't believe I can do an entire full body massage in that time. It is very hard, too! With the back issues it's been a stretch but I can just do it without falling over dead... barely *grin*.

I've got a pretty terrific class. There are 12 of us, of which 11 are women and 1 man. I'm also not the oldest person in the class, either. That shocked me, too. I thought I'd be surrounded my tall, skinny teenagers, but I got lucky I guess. I'd forgotten how much I actually knew (somewhere in that mushy brain of mine) about anatomy and physiology....or perhaps I should say how much I've forgotten? I dread origins and insertions of muscles - that was always my weak point. I know muscles, bones, and physiology of the human body like now tomorrow, though. Now I must learn mechanics...though that doesn't really come until the 11th week.

The first 10 weeks encompasses a Cert IV in massage, the second 10 weeks will give me a Diploma in Remedial Massage. Basically, I learn Swedish, Deep Tissue, MFR, Sports Massage, NMT, ROM, and assessment of dysfunctions to "fix" the dysfunction within the scope of remedial massage. It's sort of like Physio therapy to an extent, and certainly a lot more than most physical therapists in the US do.

Anyway, I'm wrecked! Long day at school, punctuated by giving and receiving a 1 1/2 hour full body massage. OH! I've also lost a little over 2 kgs, too! Hope I can keep it up...lots of veggies on the plate for dinner, but I love veggies so no problem.

Oh yeah, and we're (the whole class) are going to Blue Smoke for lunch tomorrow...it's 50 cent wings on Wednesdays. I've been dying to go since it's the only (American) Southern BBQ restaurant in Brissy.

Ya'll take care now.

Oh Hai der ya'll

I wish I felt this way today. Some days are just so blah, aren't they? I'm not a morning person and to be honest there have been very few mornings in my life where I've woken up and thought, "Hey! I feel GRRRRRRRRR EAT! Let's get shakin my bakin!". I wonder why it is some of us love mornings and others need a caffeine infusion before we're even civil.

Truly, I like mornings when I'm on holidays at the beach and I get up early to watch the sunrise over the ocean. Other than those times...I suck in the ayem. In the meantime I'm just going to smile and fake it til I feel it.




see more dog and puppy pictures

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)

This woman is so amazing!

I'd love to post more, but I'm so wrecked from school. My brain is truly fried.

Back to Skool!!!

Oh. My. Gawd.

I spent all day in a classroom. With other people in it. And I didn't lose my mind!!!

Ok, Yeah I am happy to finally get started with classes but the first day spent on my ass, granted it WAS a very nice leather swivel chair that leans back, but, but, but.... I sat in that same chair from 9 am til 4 pm!!!!!! Ok sure, there were a few breaks...but ALL FREAKING DAY!!!!! I was craving a drink when I got home, but made do with some chips and salsa thanks to C~ who lovingly gave me some really cool salsas with cute dip dishes in the shape of a cactus and a coyote. Cool, huh?

Anyhoo, time to relax with some tv and a nice Kathy Reichs book.

Ciao!

Gotta show off!!!!

I've got some gorgeous new pics of Henry. He's my newest addition to our family. He's such a lovely boy, he never raced, and even though he's still a mischievous 3 1/2 yrs old he and Tiger get along like a house on fire.

Well, without further ado....I present HENRY!

I just love that cheeky little tongue licking the tip of his extremely inquisitive nose...sometimes I think he's as much a scent as sight hound.

I've done it!

Yes, I've gone and done it. I've linked FB to my blog. I'm still scared witless by it, too.

Face Book

Good heavens! I'm another person addicted to Face Book...well, perhaps addicted is the wrong word. Let's just say that I check FB updates when I check my email...but only if I've received an email from FB with an update and only if I really feel I MUST check it out.

It's the first time in 20 years that I have connected with a number of high school friends and even relatives I grew up with, so that's pretty cool.

I just don't know if I want to let my "friends" on FB know I have a blog. That's kind of scary. I mean it's scary in the way that I'm trying not to think about it too much. I'm trying to be objective and rational and find I can't be. I'm scared shitless, if I'm to be quite honest with myself.

Like Scarlett O'Hara said, "I'll think about it tomorrow".

Welcome back to my blog roll

Just a quick aside to welcome back my blog rolls. YAY! I finally did it! This morning I've accomplished very little other than taking my car to the air conditioning shop, taking a taxi back home and reading (that's VERY important in my daily life) and WAITING!!! ARGGG! Yes, waiting, waiting, waiting.

I have added new blogs to my list and some old blogs that I still love very much. I've also renamed the categories, which I might change again, but just to make things easy I've separated them into Foodie Blogs and "regular" blogs. I guess that's what I should call them lol. I dunno how to label them right now.

I am still in the re-building stages, trying to make the blog look a little less dated and freshen things up a bit...still not sure about going to a 3rd party xml blog style as I'm afraid of losing my archives. Any suggestions for that? I know zilch about html, so I can only follow directions if they are pretty clear. I would dearly love to have a different style from what is offered by blogger and I have downloaded several, but I just can't bring myself to hit that change button!!! I'm so afraid of losing it all! Help?

PS: I did edit some of this post as it wasn't particularly germaine to the header.

Blogroll - Fail!!

I'm working on the blog roll. I know it's lacking from the sidebar. Just gimme a little more time, I promise I'll have it up soon as I can.

Phil Collins "Gorilla Drummer" Cadbury Ad (Dairy Milk)

I love this commercial for many reasons. Mostly it reminds me to close my eyes and FEEL the music in my soul.

My other favorite commercials are the Citroen ones. Check out youtube for those as well. Love the transformer ones the best.

Buying shoes

I have been so VERY annoyed at all of the shoes I've bought since I've been to Australia. These are shoes I've had to buy specifically for work.

Gone are the days of wearing scrubs and tennis shoes to work. Here, one wears a uniform that looks more like a flight attendant and shoes that are dressy...which, to me, means damned uncomfortable. They're DRESS shoes for crying out loud. No one makes a dress shoe that's meant to be worn all day every day and not only be comfortable ALL day but also keep back problems at bay.

At the heart of this is workplace health and safety which maintains that shoes must be leather, fully enclosed, the heel should be covered, and the tops should come within 2 inches (or thereabouts) of the ankle. Also, the heels should be no more than 6 centimetres high. The height is generally ignored by most women and they wear high heels and get away with it....but I can't wear shoes that slip on with no backs, ie "mules".

Now that I'm going to be starting massage therapy school, I must buy new shoes. Firstly, the shoes I wear to classes must be the same as above, though I can get away with regular tennis shoes until clinics start and then I've got to wear the same as above. It's disgusting!! Come ON! As someone who will be on my feet all day, I need shoes that will keep me comfortable and keep my back from hurting.

Not only have I had back surgery but I also have congenital bunions. I had surgery on my left foot when I was 15 in an attempt to correct the worst of the two, but it's now the same as the right foot, which has never gotten any worse.

So, the hunt is on...AND I fully intend to challenge those workplace health and safety rules, too. It seems that the laws are open to interpretation and it depends on who one works for as to what is appropriate for that particular clinic or office.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do just yet, but for now I'm busily trying to find a Dansko dealer here in Oz.

Wish me luck!!!!

Cheers, Kimmie

This is my family

I had forgotten just how hard I can laugh at some of the antics my family can get up to. In this clip is one of my cousins children and the peanut gallery you hear laughing is the rest of the family. To be honest, I don't know who all of them are, but I could tell from a quick view, that it looks like cousins and an aunt and uncle.

Let the spoon fights begin!!!

A continuation...

I have not given up blogging, I have apparently taken a bit of a break. Now I fully intend to start writing again.

I feel much better and I'm glad that I'm finally back. The past year has not been easy and I thank all of my friends and family for their support. I couldn't have done it without you all.

Stay tooned, more later :)


Please bear with me as I attempt to redo the blog. I'm playing with widgets, colours, etc and the look may change a bit over the next few weeks as I doodle. If you have any suggestions I'm up for it! As for blog links...I'm restoring them slowly. I've had a bit of work to do to repair broken links and such and rearrange stuff.

Tiger's Birthday Party!!!!

On December 27 we will be celebrating Tiger's 6th birthday a little early with some friends, will post pics later!!!!!

I'm Pissed off bigger than shit

Yeah, you'll never guess why either.

My .... Frickin frackin, goshdarn farkin PARENTS have gotten back together!!! I'm horrified, mortified, and every other absofuckinggoddamnedlutely -FIED you can possibly think of.

Oh yeah, Mom said it's because she no longer feels bitter so now it's all OK. WHAT THE FUCK???????

What part of "Dad has not changed ANY since she's been gone" has she forgotten? Her answer? She can help him.

Please oh PLEASE someone deliver me from codependency hell before I lose my mind....again. Yeah, you know you thought that "again" part, didn't ya'll? LMAO

At this moment I shall say no more, except I think my sense of humour just might be returning.

I promised myself I would NOT write another poor me my life sucks nobody loves me no one understands why don't she write kind of post. Enuff wallowing, done over gone.

Love to you all for putting up with a dumbass like me for a half assed worthless blogger that I....pfffft fuck, ok last time I do that. pinky swear.

It's been awhile, eh? Shocking news, too!!!

Yes, I know it's been quite a while since I've posted. A gazillion things have been going on...as usual lol.

I have some very good reasons, though. I haven't known quite what to say or what, if anything, I should post about. To say that there have been some personal issues would be an understatement.

About 2 months ago, my parents who have been married for 41 years separated. My dad, as I've written about before, is a very difficult person to live with. He was, and still is, a manipulative bully that always thinks he's right...about everything.

My mom finally had enough and asked him to leave...he refused, but luckily my sister and brother-in-law were there at the time and reinforced her decision to have him leave on that night. In fact, they (my parents) had been visiting my sister and brother-in-law and they were coming back from Florida and apparently dad was a real jerk on the way home and I suppose that was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, and so since his clothes were already packed, all he had to do was get in his car and go.

For now, he is staying with one of his sisters and my uncle and my mom is at home. Dad still kind of comes and goes as he pleases, which is a serious point of contention since they have been counseled and it was agreed that he would call mom before he came over. He says that no one is going to tell HIM he cannot go to his own home whenever he wants to. *sigh*.

He needs some real therapy, and some anger management therapy on top of it all. He just can't see that he hurt us (my sisters, my mom and I) and continues to hurt us. He thinks that everyone is against him but what he just doesn't get is that we WANT him to get help and we WANT our parents together. Even mom wants him to come home, but not until he sees that the way he has treated us and her all our lives was wrong.

He doesn't know what love is or even how to love. He thinks love is controlling everything and everyone in his life and if they don't do what he wants then they suffer his rage. Rage that gets out of control to the point of physical and verbal abuse.

I truly love my dad, and though I am trying not to take sides and have told him that I'm not, it's so easy to understand my mom's and be angry with dad. Right now I can't even talk to him because he is so toxic to my life.

Even though over the years I begged mom to leave him or make him leave, which she refused to do (because of us mainly) and because she thought she was doing the right thing by staying by his side to support him and help him, even though she finally did make him leave, it still hurts me to see them going through this. It hurts because I want a loving family. I want the family that I never had. I want this to be a wake up call to my dad so that he can get the help he needs so that we can be the type of family that discusses things together, not what we have always had which has been conflict, strife, abuse, and pain.

At this point, I'm not holding out much hope that dad will get his shit together and take responsibility for his actions, both past and present, and stop blaming everyone but himself for his problems. Mom is kind of taking it slowly and I don't think she will take the first step towards divorce, though. I think she is waiting to see what will happen.

To me, this is just not on. I think she should file separation papers and get on with things to force the issue with dad, but she says she's trusting in the lord to make things right and if dad doesn't make any changes then he will be the one that makes the moves. I honestly don't believe that he will, though. He's just not like that and it's just not his way. He waits for others to make the first move then blames them for not doing what he wants.

I don't know what else to say right now, except I'm seeing a therapist....well, I've been seeing one for a long while now to deal with those childhood issues so they stop affecting my life. I feel betrayed, confused, and then again I'm also GLAD they aren't together anymore and deep down I hope mom does get a divorce from him so she can finally have a peaceful life without all the shit dad brings to a relationship.

I guess that since I've been through a divorce, but then I'd been thinking about it for quite a long time before I did anything about it, I understand why mom is holding out hope.

My phone bill is pretty high, instead of 5-8 hours of phone calls per month to my family it's more like 5-10 hours per week now...slowly going down since I'm not calling mom every single day to make sure she's ok. Even though she instigated the separation, she's taking this very, very hard as she wants more than anything to have back the man she married.

Namaste to you all

I've been sick this month....

And tired and a little down so I haven't had much to say. But I came across this youtube video that shows what greyhounds do in bed and it's too cute not to share. Plus the star of the video, Grace, looks like my boy Tiger.