Yes, I'm scared of my cat.

Every night, as I walk through the door from work, I am met by 2 dogs and 2 cats. It's not because I give them lots and lots of attention. They meet me for other reasons. The cats meow and the dogs talk for the next 15-20 minutes, letting me know that it is time to be fed. I let the dogs and one of the cats into the garage where I feed them in the following order: The cat (Callie)is fed dry food on top of the cupboard, so the dogs don't eat her food. Oscar is fed one scoop of dog food next because food is, arguably, the most important thing in his life. That and he will take the bowl from Zephyr if you feed Zephyr first. So, whether or not he is given food first, he eats the first bowl of food. Zephyr then gets a scoop on the side of the garage with no cars. This is because he picks up his bowl and moves it so that Oscar won't eat it, and he frequently leaves the bowl behind my car tires if he is fed on the side of the garage with the cars. Next, Oscar gets another half scoop--partially because he is bigger, but mostly because he tends to have bad food manners and has been known to steal the roast off the of the table or the beef jerky off of the radio. He knows he shouldn't do this, but he just loves his food too much. Thus, usually we remember to keep meat, cheese, and applesauce products in the middle of the table and not close to the edges.

Finally, I go back in the house and feed Tabitha (the other cat) on top of the terrarium. Again, so the dogs don't get her food. She gets a can of cat food of the poultry or beef variety. Why the canned? Because she bites me if she only gets dry food. Why the poultry or beef variety? Because she bites me if it is fish. If I don't feed her when she wants on weekends, you guessed it, she bites me. Don't worry, she always licks me before she bites because she is very particular about cleanliness and having a clean surface to bite.

I realize that this isn't logical to let her bite me since she is seven pounds and I am............a whole lot more than seven pounds, but apparently I'm scared of my cat because I keep letting her use her mind control powers to get me to feed her what she wants. I guess she does own me.

The untagged

So, I'm participating in my cousin Eliza B's untag.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Onion Prius--doesn't real sound like a good one. It sounds more like an advertisement for a new odor of car freshener
2. YOUR GANGSTA STAR NAME (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Chocolate Almond Asics--depends how you pronounce the last part, whether it would work or not.
3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Blue Cat. Boy, that sounds fierce.
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you where born): Rachel Payson. This one does actually sound like a soap opera name, I must admit--I must be destined for greatness in bad T.V.
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first three letters of your last name, first two letters of your first name):Greme--Maybe they got the name of the Gremlins this way.
6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Green lemonade--saving the thirsty around the world with dyed beverages!
7. NASCAR NAME (the names of your grandfathers): Earl Wallace--just wanted to make it unnatural for those of you who know my family.
8. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your 5th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Johnson Jakarta. Johnson is kind of a manly name. I hope that I don't need to change genders to have this job.
9. SPY NAME (your favorite season/holiday, favorite flower):
Fall Lily--Companion to the Fall Guy, only better than he is.
10. CARTOON NAME (favorite fruit, article of clothing you are wearing right now): Peach Hoodie. I think I'm going to be the next character on Strawberry Shortcake. There may be a brawl to oust the current peach character, if there is one.
11. HIPPIE NAME (what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Honey Bunches of Oats Maple. I think perhaps that would be a new kind of cereal rather than a Hippie name. It's a long name for a Hippie to remember in their psychedelic state.

Remember, Green Lemonade will quench that thirst you have.
signed, Peach Hoodie

P.S. You're going down Peach Blush!

As is the tradition with this, I tag No One.

The Quirkiness of Me

I was tagged recentlyish to share six quirky things about myself. I did not forget this, I just couldn't think of the things. Here it goes:

1. I won't eat square hamburgers, even with the corners broken off.
2. When I go to bed at night, I turn off the light and cross the room in the dark without turning on a lamp. I consider this quirky, since my room is a pig sty. I try to memorize where all of the junk is before I cross the room and am usually successful crossing the room safely.
3. I have a weird thing with numbers. I made cookies yesterday and there was enough dough for 6 dozen and 2 cookies. I made six dozen and saved the extra dough for my brother. My alarm clock is always set for a number ending in 4 or 9.
4. I close my eyes when I shower.
5. I start singing weird, made up songs when I am tired.
6. I don't sleep sitting up, meaning I don't sleep in cars, planes, trains, buses or any other kind of vehicle. Perhaps if I traveled first class...

There you have it, that is the quirkiest that I can remember. I now tag, Mama G, Mandyhead, Cynthia, Eliza B, Suz E Q, and Roo. However, you don't have to do it if you don't want to.

Technology Rolls into the Boonies

I bet y'all thought I was never going to get another car. Hah! I actually did it--I have a new car. O.K. I have half of a new car. I had decided just to get an American-made (cheaper) car that was within my budget; however, the one that I wanted to look at was rented out. In the meantime, my Dad got annoyed with the prices at the gas pump, and my parents decided to go in half on a new Toyota Prius (a hybrid). My Mom went up a week and half ago and managed to get one for us in a week (the usual waiting period is 6 months). Anyway, we picked it up on Saturday. Mom was going to pick it up on Monday, when she was going to Provo, but I wanted to go, since the car was half mine, so we went up Saturday. FarmerBoy came with us. I drove around Provo and to Payson. Mom drove from Payson to Nephi and FarmerBoy drove from Nephi home. S.Q. drove to church on Sunday, and Dad took it for a spin yesterday. We wanted to make sure that everyone knew how to run it-as you don't use a key with it.

Our current average gas mileage is 41.5 mpg, which is fabulous. I've noticed that you become obsessive about watching your mileage, always trying to increase your mpg. The electric engine mostly runs the car under 30 mph and then the gas engine kicks in above that. The car isn't going to win any stoplight races, but that isn't why we got it. It managed up the Nephi hill just fine (when FarmerBoy wasn't trying to improve his mpg).

Weird things about the car:
1. Pushing a power button rather than turn a key to start the car.
2. Having a rear-view camera. I'd rather look out the window.
3. Controlling all the auxiliary functions with a touch screen--Air, radio, etc.

Other great things about the car:
1. Great space for long legs. So far, everyone that has sat or driven the car fits just fine.
2. Lots of little storage compartments
3. Auxiliary/MP3 jack--My Zen/Zun (can't remember which one I own) sounds great in the car.
4. Automatic adjust air-conditioning to keep the car at a comfy level.

So there you have, my description of the car. Right now the odometer is somewhere around 250 miles. I'll let you know how it performs in the long run. Enjoy the photos above.

Bad Omens in my life

As today is Friday the 13th, I followed some links to read about superstitions. In my family, we find Friday the 13th good luck as it is the day my Dad was born. Also Farmer boy was born on the 13th as was Uncle Isatalo. (though not on Fridays, however their birthdays fall on Friday the 13th sometimes--shocking, I know.) I'm not a very superstitious person, but I decided I'd share some reasons why I'm destined to have bad luck for the rest of my life (other than not passing on gazillions of e-mails that I've gotten).

Bad luck for:
1. Sitting on a table without one foot touching the ground
2. Passing someone on a staircase
3. Fastening a button in the wrong buttonhole (lots of bad luck for me on this one.)
4. Walking under a ladder
5. Mending a garment while I'm wearing it (I've found the bad luck here is that you poke yourself with the needle.
6. Opening an umbrella in the house
7. Singing before breakfast
8. A bat flying into the house (family, take note of this one. I'm not sure what the luck is for shooting the bat in the house with a BB gun.
9. Hearing a rooster crow at night (or anytime you are sleeping. It wakes you up--duh!)
10. Cutting my nails on a Friday

There you have it--all of the reasons that I'm doomed to have bad luck for the rest of my life. You should take a look at this website.

I found it all very amusing. And no wonder I'm not married, I read all of the wedding traditions as well. I don't think I could handle doing everything correctly on my wedding day--I'd just be doomed to an unhappy marriage.

Wind, Wind, Wind

First off--Happy Birthday, Mom! It was your birthday when I wrote this, but probably not when you read this. Today, my rant is on the wind. I am not a fan of the wind--a breeze, I love--the wind, I do not. What is so bad about the wind, you ask? I hold my breath in the wind; I don't know why I do this, but I do, and thus long periods of time in the wind are difficult for me as I have to force myself to breathe. Apparently, I did this as a baby, too. Old habits die hard. In fact, I haven't gone to get the mail today because it will involve walking in the wind. I haven't gone to get lunch today because I'll have to walk two steps in the wind to get to the car to go get lunch.

I forgot to post about how fun it was to have Cyn and NooKoo down last week. They were here for just a short time, but long enough for NooKoo to make great friends with one of the dogs and utter the great words "dog" and "cat". She could already say "mama" and "wow" and maybe a few other things. I must admit she is very cute, particularly when she gets excited and goes stiff and shakes. I think that FarmerBoy is her favorite aunt/uncle at this point. When she saw him she got excited and about rocked her car seat off of the table. Too bad he, Mom, and Dad were sick and couldn't hold her, but they enjoyed seeing her just the same. It was also good to get to talk to Cyn and see her again, of course. We really do like you Cyn, even if you didn't have NooKoo.

Well, I'm off to hold my breath and get the mail and my lunch.