Dances with Goats

I found this title appropriate only because "Dances with Wolves" is on the list of movies that my husband will watch over and over again. It was on some random channel yesterday afternoon, and although it was almost over when he found it, he watched the ending for the 18 billionth time.

But about the goats....my goats hate dancing. It freaks them out. Bruce discovered this fact when he came into the fenced yard with his mp3 player on and broke out into a little jig right there as the goats were coming up to see if he had any treats for them. The dancing scared them so bad that they spazzed out and started running sideways. If they were Australian fainting goats, they would have fallen out for sure. So Bruce reported to me later that they seriously hated dancing and of course we had to go test the theory out again.

We walked out into the yard, and pretended to just stand around and chat...long enough that the goats were calmly walking around us. And then we broke out in a dance. Sure enough, it scared the hell out of them and they scattered away running like their lives depended on it. Yeah, it sounds meaner than it was intended to be.
Its actually quite funny to see. And they get over it pretty quickly. They recover and come back to see us. They don't go hide and cower for any length of time.

But of course when Stephen came over, he wanted to test it out again. So, yeah, we did it. And the goats freaked out again. They just don't appreciate the art of dancing at ALL. Or maybe we are just not doing it right....HA! I'm guessing that its a really good thing that our backyard is surrounded by acres of trees as a buffer so that neighbors or passersby might accidentally witness this weird dancing ritual that we have going on out there. Its so fun that its practically impossible to resist breaking out in dance with those goats. And after they get over the initial shock of our dancing, the goats get really wild and playful. They have some fun with it too, its not just all "mean-spirited, let's torture the goats" stuff. They run and play and headbutt each other. Goats frolic in ways that most other animals just can't. So, come on over and we can all go outside and dance with the goats!

Dream Analysis Please.....

I had the weirdest dream last night. I was running errands, just going through a mundane, regular day, when I started noticing that everybody that I could see had a six inch statue of liberty replica in their pocket. It was one of those little cheesy types that you find in all the tourist trap stores in Times Square. Some people had one in their front pants pocket, some in the back. Some people had one in their shirt pocket, and I spotted a few ladies who had one peeking out of a pocket in their handbags. I was so caught up in checking these things out, and every single person that I saw at all the normal errand spots that I frequent had one. The grocery store, the mall, the bank....even the clerks had them.

And then I took a closer look, and noticed that every little statue had a different face. One had a baby's sleeping face, all pudgy with closed eyes. And some were men, some were women. Not anyone that I recognized, just random faces. I woke up from that feeling really unsettled like I was caught in some really bad Twilight Zone episode. It took me a while to go back to sleep. And its not like it was scary or anything, just surreal. Like a hallucination that I just wanted to shake myself out of. Funny. I wonder what a dream analyst would make out of that?

And speaking of unsettling...we just got back from the pool. We've been going occasionally in the afternoon, if we manage to get off work in time to soak up a little sun. So, anyway, there was this woman there that I haven't seen before. She was really overweight. And while that in and of itself is no biggie, there are plenty of less than perfect-sized people there, it was what she was wearing that was so frightening. She had on a bikini. Not a moderate 2 piece, that still managed to cover appropriately. But a teeny-tiny string bikini that my husband pointed out how the "strings" had all disappeared into huge folds of flesh so you could barely tell that she was wearing anything. It was obscene and disgusting. You would not even have to own a mirror to tell that it was inappropriate. You should just be able to FEEL that your straps were sucked into your "fat pockets". I noticed that people were sneaking sideways glances and talking in whispers about her. I felt bad and embarrassed for her. But you know...she must have been at least in her mid-40's, so seriously, she is old enough to know better. Most of the folks there have at least a half a sliver of decency about them. Not that there aren't some teeny tiny bikinis in the mix, but those are on the younger, thinner people who can pull that off. I know I am sounding mean, but I am afraid I might have nightmares about that tonight. And I do not want any more unsettling dreams.

Take the Guess work out....

Take the guess work out of shopping online! Seriously! I have found a new site (well, its new to me, so...) called My Shape. It takes a bit of time to set up your account because you have to measure your body all over, and fill in the info. But its FREE. And its non-judgemental, no matter what your measurements are.
And honestly, it asks you to measure practically everything. How many times have you been asked for the circumference of your thigh? But once your info is in the system, it custom selects clothing for you based on your actual measurements, like a personal shopper. It selects the size, and fit that will flatter your body the most. How easy is that?

And its not any more expensive than shopping other places really. The styles it selected for me were varied from moderate to kind of pricey. It selects pieces from all over the place. I recognized a few things from Macy's website, and the price was exactly the same. Its like being able to check several dozen online shopping sites in one place. And everything offered is YOUR size, and YOUR best styles. So cool.

Also? Once you sign up and fill out your information, you get FREE shipping and FREE RETURNS. So, if for some reason, you aren't as thrilled with something as they think you should be, you can return it with no charge. That makes it risk-free, too.
I have set up my account, and I am in the process of adding things to the wish list feature provided. I haven't actually ordered anything yet. But I will. Oh yeah, you can count on that!!! And for my girls (Erica and Hannia) IF you were to have a wish list, and IF you provided me with a link to it, anytime I got a wild desire to shop, I could buy you something you really wanted, instead of something that I think would be cute on you...LOL. One of the cool wish list features is that you can order from someone's list without ever having seen the actual size of anything. For people who are shy about what size they wear, I guess.

For me, sizes are nothing more than arbitrary numbers proven by the fact that MY personal shopping list offers me clothing with a variety of different sizes. It goes by your measurements, so while you might wear a 10 in one thing, it might be an 8 or 12 or whatever in another item. I love that, because trying to order clothing online, without being able to try it on is difficult. There really should be some kind of sizing standard, but until there is, I can let someone else do the work for me! Yay!

Farmer's Market

I went with Hannia to our local Farmer's Market this morning. First of all, I had every intention of getting there around 8ish. That didn't happen. But we did make it there by 10. I was a little disappointed that there was not more veggies, but its still a little bit early for a lot of the things that I was hoping for. I wanted some fresh corn. There has been some pretty corn at the grocery store, but I guess its too soon for the local corn. Hannia wanted peppers, and none of those were to be had either. There were lots of beautiful tomatoes and squash. And lots of greens, too.

What I wasn't expecting was the ton of other stuff there. OMG!!! Hannia and I went to find healthy foods...LOL. But there were stands with ALL kinds of homemade baked goods. Breads, cakes, pies. So much yumminess under one roof. We bought fried Mango turnovers for breakfast. How healthy does that sound? Those were pretty tasty though. There were some local strawberries, but we just had a ton of those last week. I went with the blueberries this time around. They were grown on a farm just a couple of miles down the road from us. And peaches. Those were brought in from SC, but they look really delicious. Oh, and I FINALLY found local honey there. I was so excited. It is hard to find, and I have been told that a small amount of local honey every day will help alleviate allergies. Your body builds up a tolerance to the pollen. I have no idea if it really works, but I want to try it. My allergies have been wicked this year. I also bought goat milk soap and mint plants...(for Mojitos-I figure if the honey doesn't work, I will just drink my ailments away. Sounds like a viable plan, doesn't it?).

Anyway, I was surprised how much that market has changed. It used to be a few local farmers selling veggies. Now its full of stuff...seafood, jams and jellies, fresh eggs, roasted nuts, and gourmet coffees....I can't even list it all. And it was really packed with people, too. I had trouble finding a place to park. But it was a nice experience. I definitely will go back. And maybe soon the corn, peppers, and melons will come in. I look forward to that!

Erica participates in a local produce co-op program up there in her town. Its really kind of cool. She pays a set price per year (I think its $400 for her), and twice a month she goes to a certain location and picks up her share of what is available at that time. She got lucky that her pick up point is literally just at the end of her street. And she gets some yummy locally grown foods, including local honey. Lately, she says she has been drowning in greens like spinach and kale. Things have been a bit delayed due to a really rainy spring. But the other veggies will be coming in soon. It sounds like a really nice way to promote local food producers and I wish we had something like that here. I guess the Farmer's Market will have to suffice.

Made me LOL

STILL Sleepless in NC.....

I still didn't get much sleep again last night. There were no cops or commotion going on, Thank God, but it still got a little weird around here. For starters, I have done something to my knee. It doesn't hurt to stand or walk, but things like deep knee bends or kneeling sends shards of pain up my entire leg that feels like somebody just struck me with a searing hot branding iron. And I decided to ignore that and go to the Ab/Core class yesterday afternoon. There was lots of kneeling involved. I did it anyway. And last night my knee ached like a bad toothache, even after taking as much ibuprofen as safety allowed. It was impossible to get comfortable. I saw midnight on my bedside clock. Then 1 am. I think I finally fell asleep around 2. And then....

The doorbell rang at exactly 3 in the morning. I woke up halfway thinking I had dreamed it. But then it rang again, and this time the dogs started barking so I knew I wasn't imagining things. I slid out of bed and tiptoed across the hall to peek out of the front-facing windows in my daughter's room. Of course, it was pitch black outside so I couldn't see anything. But standing there in the dark, my brain still groggy from sleep, I started thinking about the guy who was running away from the police on our property. Why in the world a guy running from the cops would be standing on my doorstep, ringing the doorbell at 3 am I can't tell you. But I got a little freaked out. The doorbell rang again while I was standing there, and suddenly I began thinking of all the reasons anyone would be at our door at this time of the morning. None of them were good.

I managed to work myself up into full scale panic, and the bell....oh yeah...it rang again! I am pretty sure it was exactly the same as every other ring, but somehow it sounded more insistent this time. I started down the hall. I have NO idea why because I am fairly certain that I wouldn't have the nerve to actually open the front door to face a stranger. Not at 3am, in the dark, wearing my nightgown. But I was heading that way like my feet weren't attached to my brain. Halfway down the hall 2 things occurred to me simultaneously. First of all: Our doorbell has been broken for a while now. WTF? And secondly: There was an ominous electronic buzzing in the hallway.

I tracked down the buzzing sound to the doorbell "box" (I have no idea what to call it). It sounded like it was about to blow up. I decided that I would have to wake up my husband, because this was way beyond my area of expertise. Plus, I didn't want to go back to bed only to have the thing explode and burn the house down. Of course, despite the ringing doorbell, the barking dogs, and impending doom and destruction, Bruce was sleeping like a baby lamb. Somehow he managed to get up, locate a screwdriver, disengage the buzzing doorbell box, and drift right back into peaceful, lamb-like slumber all under a minute. Sigh.......I was left feeling really nervous, and twitchy, and nowhere near ready to sleep. I saw 4 am on the clock, and then 5. I think I finally calmed down enough to sleep around 5:30.

And thats when our adorable, living, breathing, cute and furry alarm clock cat, Omen, decided to make her morning visitation. Every day, like clock-work, Omen jumps on our bed at 6 am. She sticks her nose against our faces and meows loudly.
She parades back and forth between the 2 of us, climbing on top of Bruce, then me, then Bruce again. She kneads us like a bread-maker, taking great care to be sure that her sharp little claws pierce through the top layers of our skin. She has taken it upon herself to make sure that we are aware that our alarm is going to go off in half an hour. Just in case we miss it or something. She doesn't think that last half hour of sleep is necessary. Plus, if we overslept she might not get her breakfast on time, and that would be a tragedy!

Oh well, hopefully nothing weird or crazy will go on tonight. Wish me luck! I am in desperate need of a decent night's sleep.

Sleepless in NC

Around 9:30 last night, while Bruce was chatting on the phone with his Dad, we heard a whole bunch of police sirens going off like crazy. It was so loud that I actually got up to see if one of the dogs had pushed opened the back door (Shep does let himself in like that occasionally. He hasn't learned how to close the door behind him after he comes in though). It sounded like the police were right in our backyard. But after a few minutes it all died down, we never saw anything go by our house, so we forgot about it.

About an hour later, I walked down to our bedroom to get ready for bed, and my room was lit up like a disco with blue flashing lights, and all kinds of commotion going on right outside. WTF? I came down the hall, yelling for Bruce, and told him to check out the front door because something was going on right out there in our yard. We were both so surprised. He walked out there and discovered that there had been a hot police chase, and the wayward car had somehow ended up stuck right on the edge of the deep ditch that runs along the edge of the woods right beside our house. Then the guy took off on foot and was supposedly running around out there in the woods, warranting at least 7 cops cars, search lights, and police combing the woods with flashlights. They never found this man. And all that they would tell my husband was that it was something "domestic".

They finally gave up, had the car towed, and left around midnight, but I couldn't sleep. They were looking in the woods beside the house, but it wouldn't be that hard to clear the ditch and sneak off into the 17 acres of pine trees right behind us. Nobody ever looked there. And just what the heck did this person do to wreak so much havoc? Would a simple domestic dispute be worth a car chase and manhunt? My imagination ran wild with all the heinous things that MIGHT have happened. With all the places on our property (barns, outbuildings, trees) where this person MIGHT be hiding. Chances are he was long gone by then, but still.....It kind of scared me a little bit. I don't enjoy having crime take place right here on my property. My husband assured me that everything was fine, the police knew the guy's name and address, so he wouldn't be able to get too far. But I couldn't help but notice that he took special care in locking up all the doors last night. Sometimes, and I KNOW its terrible, but we actually forget to lock up. Its rare, but it does happen. Not last night, though.

The strange thing is that I can't find out anything about what was going on. No reports on our local news websites, nothing in the paper. Weird. I just hope I don't think about it all night tonight, too. I am tired and sleepy today!!!