Rischa's Rants, Raves, and Ramblings

All is quiet

There's nothing much going on in the house today. Joel got off work at lunch time, came home and took a nap. Kolby is playing video games. The furry kids are snoozing. The Finchies make a "meep meep" noise every once in a while. Otherwise, it's just the sound of me typing this blog entry. I'm on my laptop because it has been storming. Every time the lights would flicker my desktop restarted. Annoying! Anyway, I just finished cleaning off some unnecessary programs from this computer, so hopefully it'll be smokin' once again. It had slowed to a snail's pace. Or like Katie Lynn said yesterday, "like a sloth on as skateboard"....or something similar. Heheh

I just finished making Rice Krispie Treats. Now we have the torture of waiting on them to cool before we can munch on them. I haven't made them in years. I forgot how easy they are to make. They're not QUITE as bad for you as some other yummy treats. They're not exactly healthy, though. Too bad. Everything yummy makes us fat. What a cruel trick!

Yesterday Kolby had his annual homeschool evaluation. He always dreads that even though he passes every single time with flying colors. She's very sweet to Kolby, too. We're both glad the evaluation is over, though.

Today started off very stressfully. Mom texted me to let me know Mam-maw had fallen and broken her hip. She has to have surgery tomorrow. Of course that has been all that I could think of all day. It's hard to live so far from family in these situations. I wish I could snap my fingers and be with her. I talked to Mam-maw and she said she was in a lot of pain. I wish I could take it away from her. She doesn't deserve to be in any pain. She's the sweetest person I know. But I guess it doesn't work like that. Sometimes it seems like the people who deserve to suffer don't and vice versa. Please pray, if that's something that you do, that she comes through surgery with flying colors and heals quickly.

In other news, I haven't been to the gym in 3 days. I'm feeling quite guilty about it. I was on such a roll. Maybe tonight I'll go if this head ache and queasiness goes away. Oh, did I not mention those things? Yeah, not feeling so hot today. All 3 of us (Kolby, Joel & myself) are feeling a bit sick in the tummy today and last night. I think we ate bad subs from Subway. The head ache is just a bonus for me. Ha...lucky me!

What would a blog post be without a little eye candy. Here's Queen Penny-Penny on her throne.

Click the image to view it a bit larger.

I'm going to go check on the treats and maybe set up the web cam to show what my Finchies are now doing. They're building a nest. One of them (Blake) is anyway. L8r!

Nyquil Take Me Awayyyy

Yeah, I know it's Calgon, but tonight Nyquil is taking my troubles away I hope. Nose? Clogged! Head? Aching! Throat? Making me cough! I'm hoping that I'll be ready to dose off by the end of this entry.

So it has been a while....sue me! :-P I just haven't been in the mood for blogging. Not that there really is anything to blog ABOUT anyway. Hmm...blog topics? Oh, I know!

True Blood; Are any of you watching it? If you don't watch the show just skip to the next paragraph now because this one won't make much sense to you unless you're a fan. I can't tell you how much I love this show! And, no, it isn't because of Erick and his sexy eyes, hair, bod, and everything else! Although, it doesn't hurt. Jason and Bill aren't bad, either! Wait, where was I going with this? Ha! Teasing....I remember. I wondered after the premier season if the show could keep up with how action packed it was last year, but I'm not worried any more. I mean HOLY CRAP! Did you all see that half man half bull tonight? And WTF is in that stuff Pig Lady is feeding everyone? Oh, and who all thought Sucki was a moron for slapping Erick? I mean HELLO! He's a vampire, you dumbass! I know she's supposed to be our fearless heroin, but come on....she was coming off a little on the dumbass side there, which reminded me of her brother. It sure isn't hard to talk Jason into changing his mind, is it? If I wasn't getting sleepy and could remember all the names on the show I'd keep going with my theories, but it's getting harder and harder to concentrate. So I'll move on to the next paragraaaaaaaaph.........NOW!

Joel and I watched "Hung" after TB went off and were not impressed. I mean, really....it's about a man that's down on his luck with a big third leg. You don't even see the main character in the show! It hides behind a zipper the whole time. Not that I'm wanting to see the thing, but if it's centered around how huge it is then....well.....it's not good to have an invisible main character, ya know? Donny, the guy that the show is really centered around is only interesting beCAUSE of his "you know". Other than that he's just a football coach with a crap life. Most Pilot episodes pull you into wanting to see more. This one just made me want to watch True Blood, Nurse Jackie or Weeds to get that one out of my system. Seriously depressing show! Since it comes on after True Blood I'm sure I'll see it again. If that happens and it looks any more interesting the second go around I'll be the first to admit it has improved. It could happen I guess. For now, though, I won't be DVRing it.

So to let you know I'm not some couch potato that just sits around watching TV all the time I should probably report that I've been going to the gym for about 3 or 4 weeks now. Joel and I joined Anytime Fitness in Leesburg. It's working out very well for me. Joel has been having some health concerns and is seeing about it. He's only gone 3 times I think. I hope he can start going with me soon, though. It's more fun when he goes. He'll be seeing the doctor tomorrow morning to get some test results back. Wish him luck. I want our next 10 years together to be healthy ones. Which leads me to my next paragraph...

Joel and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary a little over a week ago. Well, celebrated might not be the best description of what we did, but we were together and we were happy with that so it was a success in my book. I had a doctor's appointment and some lab work done, so that wasn't exactly a dream come true, but the rest of the day was purely fun. We spent it in Orlando shopping, eating, and just enjoying one another's company. We ate at Bahama Breeze, which is our new favorite. We gave each other the gym membership. Haha...what are you supposed to get for your spouse after 10 years? We're not traditional. 

I had some other thoughts that were going into this blog entry, but right now I"m thinking about the back of my eyelids and how comfortable this bed and my pillow is so.... 

Flea & Sea

Today, well technically it was yesterday, we went to the Flea Market. I don't know why....we just did. I enjoy the flea usually, but today it just looked like a bunch of junk with price tags. I did buy a book, though. We were in and out of there in a half hour. We walked all of the isles except the dusty one out back. That isle, literally, has nothing but the same things all the time. Plus, a funny guy that always screams, "Bargain day todayyyyyyyy". It always cracks me up. He says it in the SAME exact way every time and yet it still makes me giggle the way he says it. I'll give him this....he sure gets attention.

After that we went to Planet Smoothie. I tried one that said it was for women. It was nasty. It left a horrible taste in my mouth. Joel joked saying I needed to lick my ass to get the taste out of my mouth. Sorry if that gives you a visual you don't need. His was pretty good. After that we went to the grocery store where we hit the jackpot on Sea Food. Yeah! My favorite! They had pre-seasoned salmon fillets for $3! We got 6 of them and froze 4. I cooked shrimp scampi and the salmon with salad and pasta. It was one of the best dinners I've ever cooked if I may say so. The dill sauce was like the icing on a cake. Mmm

The rest of the day was spent as any Saturday should be....napping and watching TV. I have more to say, but I must get back to sleep as it has been several hours since my last nap and I miss LaLa Land. Joel's there without me right now and I'm sure he's lonely. Later...

Can't Sleep

I can't sleep, so I thought I'd post an entry in my poor, neglected blog. Sooo....what to talk about. Since sleep is what I'm after at the moment, let's start there.

I try every night to get in the bed at the same time as Joel. He decides he's going to bed and 5 minutes later he's snoozing. By the time I take the dogs out, close both computers, wash my face, brush my teeth, check all doors, get into my Pajamas, etc... It's too late. I really wish I could simplify my life so I could just say I'm doing something and DO it right then and there.

Speaking of simplifying my life, I really do need to do that in ALL aspects of Rischa-ville. Did I just say "Rischa-ville". How lame! Must be the sleeping pill. Anyway, first let's start with my email lists; I get about a thousand emails a day from different subscriptions. Most of them I mass delete. Why do I do this? What am I looking for out of these lists? I waste an awful lot of time sorting. I even have folder after folder to help organize them all, but I still waste a ton of time going through them all.

Second; Pets. I love each and every one of my pets. I REALLY do. Just like everything else, though, I go overboard. I take in every stray or sad face I see. I'm like the old lady that lived in a shoe, but with critters. I can't even go on business trips with Joel or visit family with him because I can't leave them behind. I have given serious thought to finding homes for my parrots. I love them so much, though, it makes me cry to even think of it. Let's say I did find a new home for them, though. I could then have my own room to work on my art rather than sweating my ass off out in the garage, where my current studio resides. I could also move my sewing desk and computer desk in there.

Oh, and then there are my treasures; I have various collections that are just stored in boxes in the garage and the attic. Don't get me wrong, Joel has some, too. I can't speak for him, though. Back to the point, I have bird houses (can you tell I have a thing for birds?), Precious Moments figurines, Piggy banks, shot glasses, and other small collections that I don't even display and bring me no use or pleasure at all. Why?! Some of them were given to me, but I did bring it on myself by starting these little collections to begin with. I don't even like these collections any more. They're just fun things to collect for a while and then they begin to collect dust, so I box them up.

I guess the question I should be asking myself right now is, "What is missing in my life that I overdo everything?" Is it a boredom thing? A perfectionist thing? A challenge? What the hell? This is my struggle for the moment. At times I think to myself, "delete everything!" That would include email lists, collections, or anything that complicates my life. The, other times, I think to myself, "What if I regret it later?" What to do, what to do?

Ahhh well, moving on....

I've been thinking of joining a Gym lately. There's one called Anytime Fitness that looks promising. I like going for walks and bike rides, but it always rains in the evening here. I set my alarm for a bit earlier this morning thinking that I could go early before it got hot out, but it stormed!! Grrr! What's a flabby girl to do? I bought an exercise DVD by Jillian Michaels, that Biggest Loser chick, but she had me doing jumping jacks, push ups, squat thrusts, jumping rope, etc... I can't jump up and down on these arthritic knees! I tried it and my knees hurt for a week. I also could feel that the workout was an awesome one, though. My muscles were that good kind of sore that you feel after you've worked out. I wish I COULD do it every day. I just can't, though. My rheumy would fuss at me if I did. On a more productive note, I have started logging everything that I eat and drink. I downloaded an application that helps you track your calories on my iPod Touch. It's really great because you can do a quick search for your food and they have a list from all restaurants and grocery stores to make it easy. It's really a great little weight loss tool.

I think I'll go surf the net a while until I feel like I can catch those illusive "Z's". I can tell that it's getting harder to concentrate on writing so my sleeping pill is surely kickin' in. See ya next time....

Oh and P.S. Don't judge me by the grammar used above. I'm not even gonna proofread this entry. It's too long and I'm too lazy to do it.

Getting to know your friends 2009

Instead of sending this each time I get it, I thought I'd post it here...

Welcome to the 2009 edition of getting to know your Friends. 'press FORWARD' then change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!      1.  What time did you get     up this morning? 9:15 2.  Diamonds or pearls? diamonds 3.  What was the last film you saw at the cinema?  I don't remember. I prefer HBO on my home TV since we pay so much for it already. LOL 4.  What is your favorite TV show? Weeds 5.  What do you usually have for breakfast Coffee with either cereal or grits. If Joel's home then pancakes. 6.  What is your middle name? LeClair (after Great Grandmother) 7.  What food do you dislike? sushi & guacamole 8.  What is your favorite CD at moment. Don't listen to CD's. I have a play list I listen to on my art blog, though, if I want music. My favorite is piano music with no lyrics. Otherwise I listen to talk radio. 9.  What kind of car do you drive? A Tucson (compact SUV) 10.  Favorite sandwich? Grilled Cheese 11. What characteristics do you despise? Dishonesty, narcissism, snootiness, know-it-alls 12.  Favorite item of clothing My blue satin night gown 13.  If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Australia .14 Favorite brand of clothing? Fruit of the Luim or Hanes (comfy stuff lol) 15.  Where would you retire to? Where I live now, Central FL 16.  What was your most recent memorable birthday? 32nd 1/17/2009 17.  Favorite sport to watch? Dog agility (good answer, Fern! I'm keeping that one) 18.  Furthest place you are sending this? Not sending it. Putting it on my blog for all to see. 19.  Person you expect to send it back first? No one since I'm not sending it, but Mom will be the first to comment. ;-) 20.  When is your birthday? Jan. 17 21.  Are you a morning person or a night person? Definitely night! 22.  What is your shoe size? 8-1/2 23.  Pets?  Many 24.  Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Hmm...I'm starting an online business, but I already shared that. 25.  What did you want to be when you were little? I don't remember when I was really little, but I had planned to be a Psychiatrist when I was in High School. I don't know if I told anyone that back then, though. 26.  How are you today? Happy as can be 27.  What is your favorite candy? Hedgehogs that Candice sends me at Christmas. 28.  What is your favorite flower? Orchids, Daisies, Tulips, Bouganvillias....oh, just one? lol 29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Hmm...I guess the day of the neighborhood yard sale. March 12-14th. Kolby comes home from GA then, too. 30.  What is your full name? Rischa LeClair Heape 31.  What are you listening to right now? The running water from the turtle's aquarium filter and my dogs snoring. 32.  What was the last thing you ate? Pancakes (Joel was home till 12 today. lol) 33.  Do you wish on stars? sure do 34.  If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Magenta 35.  How is the weather right now? Perfection!! Sunny....not too hot, but warm. Mid 70's. 36.  The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Kolby, my handsome son 37.  Favorite soft drink? Coca-Cola (which I can't have....dieting *sobs*) 38.  Favorite restaurant? Palm Tree Grill 39.  Real hair color? Dark brown with Auburn tones. 40.  What was your favorite toy as a child? Caroline doll and then my He-Men action figures. Yay for tom-boys! 41. Summer or winter? Summer, but prefer Spring 42.  Hugs or kisses? Depends on who. Both from my fellas (Kolby and Joel, of course) 43.  Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate ALL the way! 44.  Coffee or tea? COFFEE!!! 45.  Do you want your friends to email you back? Always 46.  When was the last time you cried? Last night, but it was something sweet. 47.  What is under your bed? Dust, magazines, and whatever Penny has dragged under there. 48.  What did you do last night? Watched tv with Joel, blogged, talked to Candice, took photos, etc... 49.  What are you afraid of? Loss 50. Salty or sweet? Sweet if I have to choose just one. 51.  How many keys on your key ring? 3 52.  How many years at your current job? 16 (Mom) 10 (Wife) Artist.....just started 53.   Favorite day of the week?  Friday     54.   How many towns have you lived in?  5   55.   Do you make friends easily?   Online friends, yes. In person, not really. I never really go anywhere to make friends any more. 56.   How many people will you send this to?  Again...not sending.   57.   How many will respond?   None....not sending, ya know. ;-)

Twitter, 12Seconds, ColorSchemer, & AllRecipes

I've joined so many websites lately. I believe Twitter came first.

 

Follow me on Twitter.

 

Then there was 12Seconds.com. You can follow me there, too! It's a site that lets you upload 12 second videos because they say that's how long it takes to get bored of something. You can use your phone to send videos, so both of my videos so far have been made with my phone. I may do another one before bed of the Christmas tree. We'll see how tired I am after this post. It's going on 4 AM after all.

I also joined AllRecipes.com, but I haven't really done anything other than saved a few of the yummy looking recipes to my favorites. I saved a tasty looking Coffee Cake that I think I'll try after the cheesecake is gone. Oh yeah, Joel and I made a yummy cheesecake together before he went to Mobile a few days ago. Mmmmm!

And lastly I joined ColorSchemer.com today and downloaded their program for the 15 day trial. I made some color schemes that are getting good reviews so far. There have been a lot of downloads. Cool! Here's my page: Rischa's Color Schemes Gallery I'll be sad when the trial of the program is over. It's fun and would be very useful for making art....digital and physical.

See ya!

 

Tag Slideshow

I don't really have much to say from my day. I sealed a painting with wax, played with Modge Podge, had some cheescake.....and the usual day to day stuff. So I'll just post this slideshow of some of my tags made with PSP and Photoshop. It's not even half the tags I've made, but it's some I put up on Fotki.com.

 

Toe Jam

Just a quick post since I'm not feeling well tonight. Must have been all of that over-indulgence today in the name of Thanks. Mmmm....stuffing! Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate, btw! Happy Thursday (Friday now actually) to you all in other countries besides the US.

Speaking of over-indulging....here's the meat of the post. It's a video of a song I'm loving right now. Toe Jam! Yuck, but makes for a good song! Don't watch if nudity offends ya. The naughty bits are covered, but they're still naked under those censor bars.

 

Our trip to the Oldest City (with celebrity sightings)

I haven't uploaded my photos from yesterday, so I don't have any eye-candy from our trip to show off yet. I'll do that today. I didn't take many pics, actually. But here's a rundown of our day anyway...

The hour and a half up there was nice and uneventful. I think I talked about that in my 70MPH entry. Once we got there we were in love with the city immediately. What gorgeous architecture! I had already made up my mind to come back with the good ole Nikon. I guess we're not the only ones that love the place as parking was at a premium. We finally decided to pay 8 bucks to park for the day. We found a good spot. We say Joel's parents walking up as we were getting out of the truck. I hadn't seen them since October of 2006. We chatted for a bit to catch up and wait on Joel. He had to run to the ATM to pay the parking attendant since we only had a buck. lol

So when Joel caught up with us we started walking along the streets among the many, nice shops. I love places like that. It reminded me of Helen Ga, which I miss visiting very much. We then made it over to the Fort to see Castillo de San Marcos. We didn't take the time to tour because we were all hungry by that time. I intend to explore this place when we go back. I love learning about our history in new places like this. Well, new to me. Obviously not new being the oldest city and all. :-P So we trekked back up the street to Harry's to munch on some yummy Seafood. Joel and I have similar tastes in food. We ordered the exact same thing. She Crab Soup and Crawfish Etouffee. Can you say YUM? I know that you can. What a nice place. I forgot to mention anything about the actual restaurant and skipped straight to the food. Can you blame me? It's SEAFOOD for goodness sake! Anyway, you enter the place through a New Orleans style courtyard. I can only imagine how nice it must be to dine there at night as they had lights strewn throughout the trees and greenery. And with candle light on the tables I bet it's quite a romantic spot. My in-laws mentioned that the only thing missing was a fountain to make it just like New Orleans. So if you're in town, you should check this place out.

From there we walked the streets again venturing into Art Galleries, more shops, and finally, an ice cream shop. By this time the heat was getting pretty rough, so we were ready for a cool, tasty treat. Oh....and get this! Good Charlotte was scheduled to play a concert there at the Ampitheatre that night. And who did I spot in the ice cream parlor, but Joel Madden's wifee poo, Nicole Ritchie!! She stuck her head inside the doorway for a few seconds and then was gone. At first I thought, "Nah, that couldn't have been her out among the common folks". But then when we left the shop I came within a foot of her daughter, Harlow, being pushed in a stroller by Joel Madden himself!! I could have bumped into him I was so close! How cool is that?!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the funniest part of the day. When Joel's Mom talked us into having our pictures made at one of those Old Western places. LMBO I'll have to scan in the photo and let the image do the talking. It was hilarious and I can't believe I didn't put up much of a fuss seeing as how I don't like my photo taken. Hmm...come to think of it.....maybe I won't scan that after all. Hehe

Photos to come....but not many. Maybe next trip will result in TONS of photos. One can only hope. I'm off for now. Have a great weekend everyone! 

Just sitting here.....

....watching a movie and eating Fat Free Cool Whip right outta the tub. I haven't really wanted to blog lately. I don't have a lot going on other than health stuff and who the hell wants to hear about that? No one, that's who!

So this movie, Little Children, is pretty strange. It has Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson in it. I don't really know how to explain it. There's a narrator and a lot of characters. So far it seems like a good one. I like movies that are like this....different. Perhaps the reason I can't explain it is because I'm still watching it. LOL

Not a lot going on in our house. We did get a new mattress. Our old one was horrible. We bought it in 99 and it had served its purpose by the time we bought this new one. Mmmm....the new one! A Simmons Beautyrest. It's much taller than our old one because of the pillow-top. I just LOVE it! I got a new memory foam pillow, too. The new items go so well together.

I really have to get going. I need to feed the birds and dogs so I can get to bed. I thought once I started typing something interesting would come to me, but nope. Didn't happen....sorry.