Popularity and Spam

Fellow bloggers-a question please!  Do you see an uptick in spam with the more hits you receive?

Obviously, I am.  Why else would I be asking?

The last month or so my daily readership has swelled by about 3-4 times!  Now I'm glad to see this (even though I have yet to earn a single penny from all these years of complaining), but along with this ballooning readership-I am seeing a huge amount of spam artists.

At first I would go into all the recent posts and delete them.  Then some of them would come back-several times over.  I then thought, "You fool, the more you delete them the more those spammers will come back."  

With that in mind, I stopped deleting all but the slightly, um, how do I say this in polite company?  Oh, the h-e-double sticks with it-I deleted the ones that were lewd.    Even with my ignoring them, they still visit and feel the need to leave their "mark" in my comment section.

Grrr.

I understand that they want people to go visit their sites.  One even said they "came back to see my site because I had visited them."

LIARS!  I have not ever visited any of the spam sites-and I will not do so anytime in the future.

Do you think this statement will discourage them?  I sure hope so.
Where do they come from and why?  Is it my subject matter?  My style of writing?  Could it be that they take turns irritating those of us who have blogs?

Maybe I should try an honest plea to cease and desist?  How's this for both a request and an ending to this week's post:

SPAMMERS:  PLEASE GO AWAY!  NONE OF US HERE WANT TO GAMBLE ON YOUR SITE OR BUY ANYTHING OFF OF YOUR LESS THAN WHOLESOME URL.  GO AWAY!  (I'm putting this in caps because I want you to know I really mean that I want to you listen to my published yelling)

A New Baby

We've had quite a week here.  Coming from Orange County, CA-entertaining the thought of protecting our faucetry and hoses from frost/freeze alerts never crossed our minds.  Then we received an e-mail from the contractor who did the needed "fix-its" to the house we bought:

"We are expecting a freeze-please remember to appropriately cover your outside pipes and faucets and make sure to do the same for your indoor plumbing as well."

He went on to give the exact things we had to do.  Off to Home Depot we went-along with numerous other transplants to our area.  We bought the faucet caps, the pipe covers, the special tape, etc...  While there we got a call from our son, Adam.

"Where are you guys?  Can you come over right away?"

We told him what we were up to and asked if he wanted us to get the items for his home as well.  After making our purchase we made our way over to his home.  I thought their new furniture had been delivered and they wanted to show us how it all looked.

The grand pups greeted us in a very animated way-even for them!  There was our darling Sam holding a Chihuahua!  It seems that while they were walking the shelties they heard some yipping coming from the wash.  They saw a huge cat running after this very tiny dog.  After scaring off the feline our son sat down on the sidewalk and the thankful pooch climbed into his lap.

No one was out looking for her and it was very cold.  They brought her to the house and called us.  After all, we were going to be adopting a rescue and here was one needing a home.

The first thing we did was make an appointment with the vet all the kids were using for the next morning.  Knowing how we would feel if we ever lost a pet-we wanted to have her checked for a microchip, fleas, etc...  She also had toenails so long that they were curving under.  

The results:  No microchip, no fleas, healthy female-possibly preggers (that's not what we wanted, let me tell you!), about 10-12 months old.  The doctor said she might just be ready to go into heat.  We're hoping that's the case because Steve is not into becoming a maternity ward.  We've put her picture on several rescue sites as being found.  

We have figured out the following about the pup we've decided to call "Lucky".  She loves men.  We're pretty sure that she had a boy of her own about Aidan's age and coloring-because this dog just adores him.  Not that Dylan isn't being given a lot of kisses as well.  Our son-in-law Alex got her to stop barking non-stop at Brianna.  Adam got her to stop yelping at Lily.  Lucky doesn't seem to mind Billy.  Again, she's a man-lover evidently.  

Wondering how Pepper feels about this addition?  He's not happy.  First off-he's never seen anything this small, noisy and hairless.  While Pepper is barely 8 pounds of handsome Tabby-Lucky is 5.23 pounds of dog.  We decided to put a gate up at the bedroom.  I have been making efforts to at least bring in Lucky so they can see one another.

Funny-he loves playing with Lily and Billy.  When Brianna spends a couple of nights with us, he loves having her sleep in the bed with us-but this tiny pup has him perplexed.

Another thing-she's only partially house-broken.  Sigh.  Thank goodness for our "sustainable bamboo floors".  Thank goodness what she doesn't like to do outside is solid, if you get my drift.  I'm thinking it's that she needs a coat.  Poor little thing hates going outside in the cold.  Can't blame her-I'm out there with her in several layers of outer wear myself!

We're trying not to get to attached until we know whether or not someone will call and claim her saying there's a little boy crying for his dog at their home.  Once we know if she'll be part of our new Arizona Lives, we'll get her vaccinated, a collar, a coat and a leash meant for a pup her size-because the one for Sunshine is way too heavy and large for her.

Our daughter has said that she knows I'm not really into tiny dogs and said we should find her a home with someone who prefers size-challenged pets.
But, I'm a mom and an animal lover. Poor little Lucky has been abandoned once, scared to death on a cold, frigid morning, rescued by one couple, taken by another couple to a home with a cat who wants nothing to do with her.
All Lucky wants is to cuddle on my lap and be loved.  After all she's been through; she deserves this at the very least.

So while she's not what we had planned to adopt, we're just going to adapt.  Things will work out and I'm sure Steve and I will fall in love with her-just as we loved our first Lucky and our Sunshine.

Counting my Blessings

Honestly, I've decided to stop being quite so cranky.  It's really not serving me any purpose and it's a downer-not my personality choice.  And since it seems that I'm with me a lot, I've decided to re-arrange my viewpoint.

Since putting our "dream" home for up for sale last September, I've been crabby.  So, to show you how I'm going to change, here are some of the ways I'm counting my blessings:
Rather than grimacing at the ugly fake cultured marble tub and shower in my master bath-I'm only going to recognize the way my husband hung our favorite framed posters over the appropriate spots and how he was able to secure grab bars for me in the water closet and tub surround.

Instead of hating the 24" slate-like tiles on the floor, I've decided to focus on how they hide Pepper's gray hair and litter sprays as he's walking out of his box in the walk-in closet.

Now that the kitchen has a beautiful glass and marble backsplash, I will conveniently forget that black granite counter tops are in continual need of cleaning and polishing every time I have to rinse any piece of food or cooking appliance.  After all, the backsplash is not only gorgeous; it also makes needing to ever paint anything but the ceiling of the space improbable.

No longer will you hear me say I miss my beautiful hand-scraped hardwood floors throughout the house.  Nope-from now on you will only hear me say how the "wood-ish" look of my very sustainable bamboo in all but the 3 official bedrooms gives the entire home a light and airy feeling that I've come to love.

I really do love my backyard-it's so easy to care for that I haven't even missed my 15 rosebushes.  Gardener you say?  Not the Nadels-we won't need anything but extra wood for the fire pit.  Okay, I'm thinking we should probably look into some "misters", but we've got time.

And the front of the house-I just enjoyed the most beautiful sunrise this morning at 7:30.  Plus, the views of the Sonoran desert right off my porch, how many of you are able to enjoy something like that?  Luckily, the stray bull found its herd and wasn't part of the landscaping-just the Saguaros and the Mesquites.
My office is looking very official too.  Real desks, not computer tables.  Book cases and a comfy sofa.  And we've decided on just the perfect spot for the treadmill.   Steve says he'll bring it in as soon as the "goose egg" on my knee disappears enough that I can actually use the darned thing.

Our bedroom-the new furniture has been delivered and it is perfect for the room.  We do have to find bigger lamps, because the old ones are looking mighty tiny on the new nightstands.  Aidan and Dylan love the new furniture-but were quick to say "grandma, sorry about your new furniture.   Did you see that it has a lot of tree skin on it?"  (reminder-these are the same two who wanted me to know they were sorry about our brand new wood floors having owies as well).  "It's called bark boys.  Grandpa and I paid extra for that."

This week, we're also counting our blessings on the fact that we must be on the other side of this horrible virus that our little petri dishes shared with us a couple of weeks ago-we're only blowing our noses about a dozen times a day and we're down to only using the cough syrup at bedtime.

See?  I'm counting my blessings.  One last "blessing"-I'm about to enjoy my new car.  Yes, right after the dealership gets the "right" alternator for my husband's car and he gives it back to me.

Sharing is Caring

At least that's what my grandchildren keep on telling us.  It's a phrase they learned in pre-school.  I'm sure that it was meant to keep the kids from coming to physical blows over things like blocks, paint jars and dolls-but they like to use the phrase when their grandpa has a donut in his hand or one of them has an itch to stare in our pantry for some kind of goodie to eat.

Let's face it though-kids tend to carry phrases like to way past what the intended meaning is-especially when it comes to germs.

I know you can see where I'm going with this opening-first Aidan had a viral infection and shared with his brother who spent the weekend with mostly me and missed out on their yearly trip to Flagstaff, The Polar Express and playing in the snow.  Poor Dylan!

His parents and brother came back Sunday afternoon.  Boy was I glad.  He was a doll, but he was running a fever, sneezing non-stop and well, he was sick.  

The result?  While Steve has a bit of the sniffles and is able to carry on-I am starting off 2013 sick as the proverbial dog.

I look awful.  My face is already raw from blowing my nose, my eyes are puffy and dripping, I am running a low-grade fever and (oh the joy) I have been coughing.  Because of the fever-my already tender contusions and joints and now feeling as if someone struck a match on them.  The congestion is making me dizzy and all I want to do is crawl into my La-Z-Boy reclina-rocker (Thank you very much Adam and Sam) and coffee myself and watch my favorite musicals today.

What's really not fair-while our kids thankfully have the day off-I will have the boys for the rest of the week.  Yesterday, they arrived at 7:30 and left at 10.  Our son-in-law, Alex, apologized for the kids sharing this bug with me.

What are you going to do?  It was bound to happen.  I am a person with a chronic autoimmune disease-it was inevitable.

What makes this even sadder is that my husband's birthday was this week.  The man actually looked at me as I was trying not to throw out my sciatica while coughing myself into a migraine and said he'd like to have a Rib Eye Roast with Yorkshire Pudding for dinner.  And with that-he took it out and put it in the fridge to defrost!

I made it-somehow.  

You know, I was hoping for a nice quiet and healthy 2013-it's not starting off too well.

Oh, I forgot to mention-Pepper has been sneezing his poor little tabby head off as well.  More proof that pets are more than animals.  Why else would he put himself through this lovely week.  He didn't even eat his tuna and sardine mix this morning-and it's his vary favorite thing in the world to eat.

Okay-time to brew some more lemon and honey water and lie down.