Do I care about the gray? Not really. Not like some ppl do. I’ve only been graying since I was 18. And as long as I still have a full, thick head of hair, its color doesn’t bother me. One reason I don’t dye my hair is because it grows so very quickly; I’d constantly have roots to touch up. What a pain that would be. I don’t like to fuss that much. Plus I have a tendency to turn allergic to drugs and chemicals. Do I NEED to experiment with hair color only to have it make my hair fall out? I think not.

Anyway, I’ve recently come up with my own take on “salt and pepper”…you know, that’s the term for ppl who have a lot of gray mixed in with their dark-colored hair. (I tend to think of that “pepper” as being black hair.)

That being said, since I have brown hair, the term “salt and pepper” isn’t really appropriate. I think “cinnamon” is more fitting than “pepper,” but “salt and cinnamon” don’t go together.

Well, enter the NEW term I’ve coined for graying brunettes…that’s right, I now say that my hair is CINNAMON AND SUGAR! It’s cute and fitting…and, as my friend Erin said upon hearing it, “Sweet!” (Get it? “Sweet” because of the “sugar”? – groan – ) LOL

Cinnamon and sugars of the world, unite, for we now have a cuter way of viewing ourselves! Walk tall and proudly display your natually frosted locks! (Oh, and I now own the copyright to this term so don’t get any funny ideas! LOL)

OK, go back in time to a pleasant evening…J.R. and I were sitting in the living room, watching TV. He in his recliner, I on the couch (folding laundry) when we both were like, “WHAT WAS THAT?”

Out of the corner of our eyes, we BOTH saw a BLUR of something fly upstairs. “HOLY SHIT, WHAT WAS THAT?” We immediately jump up to investigate…only to see the same BLUR of something now flying downstairs, coming straight at us! (Insert much screaming here as I now realize this is a bat.)

J.R. goes into the kitchen to find something to arm himself with while I come running in behind him as said bat now flew into the dining room, where I was.

I’m now hiding behind J.R., clutching onto his back, when he makes me go into the bathroom off of our kitchen and close the door. (I guess he likes to deal with one pest at a time! LOL) Armed with a plastic Chinese food container and a long fish griller thingamajig for the BBQ, he opened the front door, then began a methodical search of the house for our visitor, upstairs and downstairs, room by room.

idk what happened next. (Remember, I was in the bathroom.) By the time I peeked out from behind the door, J.R. had last seen our visitor on the floor at the base of the stairs and assumed our guest had left through the front door. We haven’t seen any sign of him since so I guess he really flew the coop. He lives to fly again and rid our neighborhood of pesky mostiquoes! LOL

In the end, all I can really tell you about this little guy is that he is VERY healthy, as evidenced by his flying speed…unlike another bat that we had years ago. That other poor little guy must have been very sick as he was crawling around on our living room floor. J.R. caught him and put him outside, where he eventually died of natural causes. RIP

Heres the irony of it all. This weekend I just HAPPENED to be watching “Blacula” (a 1972 vampire movie starring William Marshall as a vampire named Mamuwalde, an African dignitary) and “Scream Blacula Scream” (the 1973 follow-up flick). Concidence? Or did Mr. Marshall feel the need to pay us a little visit? Bwaa haa haa. Bwaa haa haa haa. Bwaa haa haa haa haa! (Insert evil laugh here.)

Stinky has been sitting on my desk at work all morning in an otherwise empty prescription drug bottle. (Don’t worry, we made holes in the cap.) And that little bugger has been staring at me all morning!

OK, as background, you should know that while I was trying to figure out more about the stink bugs invading our bedroom on a regular basis, I came across information from Rutgers University. It turns out Rutgers is doing a study. They want to find out how invasive this pest has become in New Jersey since its introduction almost a decade ago.

You’ll see from the text below from their website that I’m just responding to their call for live specimens. I’m sure they need to verify that we do indeed have stink bugs and not some other pest. So come on, everyone, let’s all do our part and mail those stink bugs today!!!

“Since 2000, the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) has been confirmed in several Mid-Atlantic States and in Oregon and California. It is believed that its distribution is much wider than currently documented.

To determine the risk to agricultural and ornamental industries, we must first determine where the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug is currently located. With the help of sightings from homeowners, Rutgers University will be able to quickly develop monitoring methods and control techniques for this invasive plant pest.

If you believe you have the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, please see the How to Identify the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug link and then fill out the secure electronic form, which will be sent to researchers currently working on monitoring this pest. If you are able to capture a specimen, please do so in any type of container. For more information please see the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) Cooperative Extension fact sheet FS002 (PDF file).

For more information on this project, contact Anne Nielsen or George Hamilton at the NJAES Pest Management Office.”

Think mediocre rock bank. Think electric guitars and amps. Put them together and I think that’s disturbing the peace.

I enjoy rock as much as the anyone (well, classic rock, that is…mainly I’m into soul/funk), but I live a mere 2 blocks away from that cacophony and can’t escape it or block it out.

Dude, what kind of permit did you have to fill out to get permission for this? And what the hell did it cost? Not nearly enough in my book…

I’ll keep my eyes peeled for new stuff and continue to post blogs about them here. Feel free to jump in at any time with your findings, too!

omg, I’m so excited…I can’t wait!

HERE’S OUR TALLY SO FAR:

Spark caffeinated orange drink mix
Snickers CHARGED caffeinated chocolate bar

UPDATE

I just thought of what our slogan can be! “Wonder Twin powers, CAFFEINATE!” LOL omg, I love it…

OK, let’s make a correction. “There are STILL stragglers in my BEDROOM,” which means I have a no-tolerance policy.

Now normally I have a little mercy toward bugs. If they are harmless and I can catch them, I do so and toss them outside. UNLESS they invade my space. Meaning maybe land on my face? And anything that can land on me while I’m asleep (or rappel down into my face as I blow dry my hair, much like the occasional spider does) has to go.

Found one dried-up stink bug carcass clinging to the lace curtain that hangs on the window facing the headboard. Was happy to discover it was dead. I gave it a no-gun salute as it swished down the toilet to its watery grave.

Now the other one, I’m not so sure. When I turned on the lamp on my nightstand, WHOOSH!, some stupid bug went flying across the room. Which is what started this whole damn investigation in the first place. I KNOW it’s stupid because it made a huge CLUNK when it HIT THE WALL and then fell on the floor. Dumb-ass bug. This one deserves to die. Since it made so much noise when it hit, I figure it’s the large, well-armored, dim-witted, and APPARENTLY SHITTY-FLYING stink bug.

I found one on the floor and it looked dead, but it could have just been playing dead. idk. I usually find out once and for all when they hit the icy water of the toilet. Correction, make that “the icy water of the automatic indoor wave pool.” And to be honest, I just woke up and am still operating on remote control so I didn’t pay much attention to its struggles or lack thereof.

Yep, put another notch in my belt, these here parts are now a wee bit safer for the likes of me. FYI, I’m going back to bed now. But I am armed and dangerous. You have been warned, dumb-ass stink bugs of the world. THIS HERE TOWN AIN’T BIG ENOUGH FOR THE TWO OF US!

It’s Friday…that’s GARBAGE DAY in our town…and rather than try to sleep in today, I used that extra time to clean out the refrigerator and freezer. wtf?

idk what possessed me to go to such Herculean lengths. You really have to be in the mood to tackle a project like that, ya know?

Out went old salsa, refried beans, and jelly.

Out went BBQ sauce, pickles from God only knows when, and olives.

Out went that spaghetti sauce that you hang onto because the jar isn’t empty but you know damn well that the next time you make spaghetti you’re opening a fresh jar.

Out went the sour cream, cream cheese, and milk beyond their “fresh” date.

Out went a jar of dry yeast for the breadmaking machine. (It was from 2005.) Well, you get the idea. On and on it went until the ‘fridge and freezer were up-to-date.

I guess nobody wants to do this job because, frankly, nobody wants to touch old food. We all put it off. The usual stuff (like leftovers) are easy enough to toss and no-brainers, but it’s the JARRED stuff that really makes you think. WHEN did I buy that? WHEN did I last use it? WHY is there no expiration date? WHAT is that stuff growing in there? DO I want to take a chance on using it? The answer is no so out it finally goes.

I guess it all comes down to having the time to sort through all that crap. I only did it to make room for two flats of soda and some bottled water! LOL Whatever. Now I’m done for another 2 years! (jk!)

Anyway, IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS YET, turn back now because a spoiler is coming.

It turns out that there’s more meat to this movie than one would have thought. Would you believe it actually has social connotations? Remember, this movie was made in the racially-charged ’60s, a decade filled with riots and hate crimes based solely on one’s race. And you don’t get the full significance of that until the very last scene of the movie.

OK, if you’re unfamiliar with the plot of “Night of the Living Dead,” apparently a satellite falls to Earth from space. Something about its radiation brings the dead back to life. Only it isn’t much of a life, because they look like hell and they crave human flesh. (Tastes like chicken? idk.) Anyway, the only way to kill these zombies is to shoot them in the head. And if you’ve been bitten by one, you’re totally fucked because now YOU will turn into one of THEM.

So people are hiding out from these zombies and have taken shelter in a house that they’ve boarded up. In the meantime, some sort of officials are aware of the zombie situation and have organized a gun-toting posse to kill the zombies…again…for the last time. (Or at least until the sequel! LOL)

Let’s get back to the house. All sorts of stuff is going on. Windows and doors are being boarded up. A couple keeps vigil over their dead little girl in the basement (don’t ask me how she died or why they kept her there…remember, I fast forwarded through the movie). The zombies are trying to bust in with lots of hands shoved through cracks in the windows and doors. It’s dramatic stuff.

So the main character of this film is a black man. And somehow he manages to survive the night of horrors. It looks like he’s the lone survivor in the house. And the next morning, he hears all the noise that means the posse has arrived to save the day…a helicopter, cars, and lots of manpower. Phew! He’s safe! He made it! He busts out of the house…ONLY TO BE SHOT TO DEATH BY THE POSSE! Wow. That hit me heavy. Because the posse comprises all white men. And at the first sight of a black man (insert the sound of a rifle being readied here), BOOM!, they shoot first and ask questions later. And that’s the REAL horror of this film.

- A dressy purple V-neck top with pretty jagged edging along the neckline, a criss-cross bustline, and 3/4 sleeves.

- A dressy royal blue top with some “jewels” along the bustline (to bring the eyes upward, to some of my better features). Hey, all I know is that it works for me!

- A dressy teal v-neck top (identical to a plum-colored one that I bought a few months ago) with beautiful gray seed pearls strung along the neckline.

- A glittery brown V-neck stretch top with a criss-cross bustline and 3/4 sleeves that I am hoping will shrink in the wash. I felt the one in “my” size was too clingy…and I’m not thin enough for that yet. I don’t want to accentuate the negative (my belly), ya know? So I wanted to go up 1 size BUT there weren’t any in that size. So I ended up going up 2 sizes because I liked it so much. While it does look big on me, I think I can get away with it, ESPECIALLY IF IT SHRINKS IN THE WASH!

- A light gray cotton knit hooded pullover sweatshirt that you TOTALLY have to wear a top under (because the bustline seems to end somewhere around my tummy).

- A matching pair of light gray cotton knit sweatpants.

- 6 pairs of knee-hi’s (3 prs in nude and 3 prs in off-black).

- 1 pair of silver dangle earrings.

As I was shopping, I kept asking the saleswoman to check how much $ I had left spent. At one point I asked the woman, “Where am I?” and she said…

Wait for it…

It’s a good one…

It so made me laugh!

She said, “Fashion Bug.” LOL

And I was like, “NO, I mean how much more $ do I have left to spend?” FYI, in the end, I got plenty of bang for my buck…and I mean that literally as I ended up having to add $1 out of my own pocket toward the bill. So thanks again to my Mom and my buddy Dianne for their thoughtful gift certificates that made this shopping expedition possible! I’M ECSTATIC!

Anyway, the air sure did SMELL like spring yesterday. And there’s something about how the light is illuminating things that immediately makes a “spring” connection with me, too. I CAN’T WAIT FOR SPRING TO BE SPRUNG! Spring is one of my favorite seasons…it’s so refreshing. idk why but it makes me feel really good right down to my soul. I feel rejuvenated.

Oh, and wanna hear something cute? A bunch of us at work joined forces yesterday and took a walk at lunch. On our way back, I saw a bird’s nest in a tree. OMG, IT WAS SO CUTE!!!