The Clampetts Go Camping

We just got back from our family camping trip. I tell ya, camping is the highlight of the year for me. This trip I decided I need to have my morning coffee while looking at views like this much more often in my life:

I need more of this.

We went back up to Panguitch Lake, Utah. You might remember we went there last year, which is where my sister almost caught the whole campground on fire. It's a wonder we were allowed back.

My brother came with us this time, which was great because he's the master fisherman in the family and this trip I actually caught fish! It's been a few years since I caught anything, so the first time I saw my pole moving (If I were a guy, here is where I 'd say "giggity") I got super excited at the thought that it could be an actual fish bite and not just the wind or my line getting snagged.

I started reeling in like crazy and then I saw the fish jumping and fighting and that was all she wrote. I was reeling and laughing and jumping up and down like a dang fool. And for some reason a hillbilly accent found it's way into my voice and I started yelling, "Ah hooked me a big'un! Come on babee, com-m-m-e to mama!" Like I was some kind of deranged Clampett.

Here's me and my big'un

I have to say...I totally get fishing. And can I just say, it's a hell of a lot more fun when you're catching fish! I caught 4 the first day. Mr. Fishy in the picture there was 16 1/2 inches long, which was a pretty decent size. I know this because my brother meticulously measured each and every fish everyone caught. He'd announce the size like a proud papa announcing the weight of his newborn son, "2 pounds and 16 1/2 inches long. Woooo-hoo!"  I guess that Clampett trait runs in the family.

My brother, the best fisherman I know

When I told my sister my fish was 16 1/2 inches and I felt like I just had a baby, she says, "Or you were with a Jamaican!" 

That's my sis. The Trampett. (Tramp + Clampett. Get it? Hee hee. Just kiddin', sis!)

My sis and her dog, Buddy

Speaking of her dog (well, I guess I wasn't, but that's him in the picture), every dang time she'd come over to our campsite with him, he'd lift his leg and pee on something. It got to where we'd see her and him coming and we'd scramble to pick up sleeping bags, shoes, and anything else we didn't want dog pee on (I know grammatically that should be "on which we didn't want dog pee", but that just sounds completely wrong!).

Speaking of bodily functions, last year when we camped at this campsite, all but one bathroom were shutdown for a few hours one afternoon due to a water pressure issue. I had to stand in line for 45 minutes and swore that I would buy a portable bathroom for this year's trip so I wouldn't have to worry about such things again.

So I bought a Luggable Loo, which is basically a bucket with a toilet seat on it. You may laugh, but it worked quite well. We bought a privacy tent, which we, in true Clampett style, renamed The Poop Tent. And our own personal outdoor bathroom was born. After my hubby put it together, we began looking for the perfect spot to put it. 

I now understand why dogs sniff around for 20 minutes before finally settling on a spot to poo. You should have seen me walking around, trying to find the perfect Poop Tent spot. First I wanted to put it by a tree, then I didn't want it too close to our tent, but I didn't want it too far away either, in case I needed it in the middle of the night. I didn't want it too out in the open, and it couldn't be on a slope because that would be a disaster waiting to happen. I could just see myself tipping over. 

After making my husband follow me around for 20 minutes, carrying the Poop Tent, while I sniffed considered several spots, I finally found the perfect one.

Now isn't this a cozy spot to do yer biznus?

Then some very high winds kicked up and it looked like this:

Not pretty.

Fortunately, no one was occupying the Poop Tent when that happened. And yes, that's cat litter you see knocked over in the picture. I read that you put a scoop in the bucket before and after and it absorbs moisture and cuts down on odor. It worked quite well, actually.

Didn't I talk about poop in my last post too? Sorry about that.

This trip was even more exciting than usual because we bought a new camp stove and I couldn't wait to try it out:

Now that's a serious camp stove!

I loved cooking on this thing! And it came with a dutch oven so we had biscuits and gravy and peach cobbler. Yum! I wrote a review and article about it with recipes over on Hub Pages if you want to check it out.

And then our trip was over. I made a resolution this trip though. Come hell or high water, I'm getting a travel trailer and dragging my hubby and dogs with me across this country so I can have my morning coffee while looking at beautiful scenery. And I need to get my butt in gear and figure out a way to make a living while on the road to make it happen. I've got some plans cooking though which I'll share in future posts. Because this here is good for the soul:

That's it for our camping adventure this year. I hope to go again in September though. My sister and her husband and me and my hubby are thinking of getting a cabin for a few days. Hopefully, that will work out.

Deranged Clampett, signing off.

It's Not Easy Being Green

I've never been a very consistent blogger. From the very beginning, back in January of 2010, when I made a resolution to blog (among other resolutions, a few of which I haven't kept), it has been a rhythmic pattern of surfacing and submerging that continues to this day.

It's kind of like when I tried to keep a journal consistently over the years and I'd write a couple pages in February 2000 and next thing I know it's 2003. Yeah, it's kind of like that.

So...sorry that I've been submerged for the last 6 months, but I'm going to try to surface again now.

I'm not sure what to surface with...a post about my green smoothie every morning, or about my daughter Sissa who's off backpacking in Hawaii.

Guess I'll start with the smoothie thing (Yup, it's all excitement and edge-of-your-seat thrill rides over here). I know you're thinking, oh yay. A smoothie story.

I'll keep it short.

So my last post I told you about how I fractured my back from bending over to tie my shoe right? And I was feeling a little better by late October, but not as good as I thought I should. I was eating better and taking vitamins, had lost a little weight, but I still just wasn't feeling...healthy.

I had even bought some stuff called "Go Ruby Go" from a vitamin catalog that my mom had. It's a fruit powder that you can mix with juice or water and is supposed to give you energy. The ad shows old people riding bikes and Skeedos and rock climbing and stuff. So I thought if it can give old people energy, maybe it would help me too.

Let me just give you a little warning about ordering something from old people junk mail. You will be added to all the old people junk mail mailing lists in existence. And there are a lot of them. A lot. I get vitamin catalogs, gardening catalogs, testosterone replacement ads, reverse mortgage ads, even offers to pre-buy my mortuary plot.

They could save some postage and just send the mortuary plot ads and gardening catalogs together. "Your loved ones will never have to be bothered bringing flowers to your grave again, with our new forever-blooming bulbs!" or "Sow your tomatoes and meet the reaper in one convenient location!"

The worst ones are the ones with pictures of poop in them. Yes, apparently, pooping is a hot topic among old people. I kid you not. Take a look:

Yes, those are supposed to be photos of poop. I know, right?

This was just one page of a 12 page newsletter ad whose topic was poop. So my point is...don't order from old people's junk mail unless you are prepared for a deluge of poop ads.

Your mailbox will be overflowing. (Get it?)

ANYhoo, even Go Ruby Go (and as I typed that I realized that name could very well have been a product advertised in the poop ad.) was not not giving me energy or vitality.

So I went to see a homeopathic doctor. Don't judge me. I believe in medical doctors, but I believe in alternative therapies too. If something works, then it works. Does it matter whether it's homeopathic, chiropractic, psychopathic...whatever? Well, maybe not psychopathic, but you know what I mean. I just wanted to feel better. (Defensive, much?)

The first thing she told me was to drink a green smoothie every morning. Green being...well...greens. Spinach, kale, collards, leafy lettuce, those kinds of greens. I add in a little fruit, carrot or cucumber if I like, and non pasteurized orange or tangerine juice. She gave me other nutritional advice also, but that was the biggest change for me.

And you know what? I finally started to feel better.

I've slowly made some other changes in my diet, like eating less processed foods and less animal proteins and animal fats. I cut out red meat, but I still eat fish and some chicken. I eat a whole lot more vegetables and fruits than I used to and I pay attention to food labels more than I used to. I buy organic whenever possible and try to cut down on the toxins and chemicals that I put in my body. Some we can't control, but many we can.

After about 3 months of doing this, my sister told me I look younger. I've lost 23 pounds and dropped my cholesterol by 33 points. My regular doctor was genuinely surprised that I did that by diet alone. He had been trying to get me to take cholesterol meds, but after seeing my blood test after a few months of my new eating habits, he said, "Just keep doing what you're doing."

I now realize what a powerful thing diet is. It's one of the few things in our lives that we have control over, yet it can be so hard to just take control of it. It doesn't help that processed food loaded with chemicals are cheap and easy and fast to eat while the healthy stuff takes time to wash, cut, and prepare. It's much harder to eat healthy than to eat junk. Hence, the obesity problem in our country.

But that's a whole 'nother post. I guess my point here is...we are in control of our health. And diet and nutrition are powerful, powerful things and the right changes in those areas can make a huge difference in how you feel. It did for me.

I didn't mean to get on a soapbox, really. Just sharing my experience.

This post is going longer than I intended and I didn't even get into the endearing little nicknames my hubby and brother called me while I was wearing that awful brace. Names like Borg and The Metal Menace, to name a few. Nothing like good 'old family support, right?

So that's it for now. Next post will be about Sissa's backpacking adventure in Hawaii. Leave it to my hippie daughter to find a spot in Hawaii with no cellphone service and where supplies come in by boat.

At least they don't get poop junk mail there.

Fractured Fragments

It's Friday Frag time! Yaaay! Time to sum up your month week with a bunch of tidbits thrown in one post.

So here we go:

Frag #1
I've been MIA. I know. Last I wrote, I was getting ready for my Sisters Zion camping trip, then for all you knew I fell off a cliff or got eaten by a bear or something because I didn't write again until now and it's been about a month.

The thing is, the morning of the trip, I bent over to tie my shoe and felt my entire spine shift. Yeah. Freaky! Well, to make a long story short, I went on the trip and went to see the doc when I got back and after a bunch of X-rays and tests, I found out I have a compression fracture. Three, actually, but two are old.

Apparently, I have Osteopenia, a precursor to Osteoporosis. So my bones are week and can just fracture for no good reason. Perfect. Oh, and I'll probably shrink a few inches too. Getting old is a bitch.

ANYwho, to help the fractures heal, I have to wear this brace. No, that's not me in the picture. I don't smile when I wear the damn thing. It's uncomfortable and makes me feel like Robo-mom.

So, I haven't felt like blogging because sitting at my desk was just too uncomfortable. By the time I get home from work, I just want to rip the brace off and lay on a heating pad. I'm feeling better now though, so hopefully I can get back to my Friday Fragging. Unfortunately, I have to wear the brace for another 4 weeks or so.

Frag #2

My male co-workers have told me I share a bit too much of my personal life with them. A manager at my job very politely informed me that all of my doctor appointments were showing on his calendar. I realized that I had put them into my shared google work calendar instead of my personal one. Great. He now knows about my Saturday mammogram at 9AM.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I sent out an email to my co-workers letting them know I'd be in a bit late one morning so I could refit my brace. If you have your phone set to notify you when an email comes in, it will show a line or two of the email, like it does for a text...at least the iphone does. Well, one of my co-workers showed me how the email notification appeared on his phone. Here's what it said:

"Hi Guys, I'll be in a little late because I have an appointment for a refitting of my bra..."

Perfect. Another TMI about my boobs.

Frag #3

My sister and I did go on our Sisters Zion Camping Trip. Yes, that should be capitalized, because I'm going to declare it a holiday to celebrate every year! We had a great time, despite my back. I'll post about it over the weekend, complete with a pee can story or two. Yes, pee can. My sister pees in a can when she camps. Meanwhile, here are a couple of pics:

This was right behind our campsite.

This was the view on one of our scenic drives. 

Frag #4

I've spent the last couple evenings googling Fall crafts to make and found the cutest ways to decorate with pumpkins. My sister, daughter, and I are going to do some pumpkin crafts next week for Fall. Here's a couple of pics of ones I want to try:

How cute is this?? Sequins!

What's not to love about polka-dots and glitter? I want to try to do these in Fall colors.

This website has directions on how to make the polka-dot ones (they're super easy!) and links to a bunch of other easy pumpkin decorating ideas, if you want to take a gander: http://swelldesigner.blogspot.com/2012/09/ombre-polka-dot-glitter-pumpkins.html

Don't you just love Fall?

Frag #5

I haven't been doing much comic making recently due to my back problem, but here's a couple I made before we went to Zion. These are actually recycled ones I had made a few years ago on a different comic making site, but they got no recognition over there whatsoever, so I remade them on my new favorite comic site. Because I like validation.

(Remember, click on the 4-arrow thingy in the bottom right to make it bigger.)

Well, that's it for my Frags this week! Thanks for indulging me once again. If you want to read more frags, or post some of your own, be sure and link up with Half-Past Kissin' Time!

Keepin' Calm and Fraggin' On

Friday Fragment Time!

Oh, how I love the fraginess that is Friday!

If you want to write a post about the bits and pieces of your week, do it and link it up at Half-Past Kissin' Time so we can all see what you've been up to. Because we're a bunch of nosy mothers.

Frag #1

Menopause makes me snarky. That's all I have to say about that.

Frag #2

My daughter, Sis, who is 22, went to Portland, Oregon a couple weeks ago to visit a close friend who moved up there. Sis was so taken with the place that she's making plans to move up there too.

Apparently, it's not against the law to walk around the town naked. There's even a lady they call "Naked bike lady" who rides around town naked, then parks her bike by the local bank, puts on a dress, goes inside and is the teller.

It's quite an open, accepting town, Portland is. On the one hand, I'm excited for my daughter embarking on an adventure...on the other, I'm worried she'll be "Naked Dog Lady" or "Naked Loud Girl" or some other such thing. She's a free spirit, my daughter. It's something I admire about her. I just want her to keep her spirit clothed, that's all.

Frag #3

My other daughter, The Girl, invited me to something at her Church called Cardboard Testimony. I guess it's a thing many churches do. She wanted me to go because she was participating in it. 

I'd never been to one and it was so inspiring and moving that I cried from beginning to end. I know it's silly, but it inspired me to post a comic about it (not that the service was silly, but the wanting to make a comic about it was). The signs in the comic are a few of the real signs that I saw during the service.

Faith, no matter what it is that we have faith in, is a powerful, powerful thing.

(Click on the 4-arrow thingy in the lower right corner of the comic to make it bigger, then to scroll it up just click and drag)

Frag #4
My sister and I decided to go on a girl's camping trip to Zion, Utah. We're going in a couple weeks and I can't wait. There won't be any fishing adventures this time. Just her and me tubing down the Virgin river, tooling around the lovely Springdale town right outside of Zion and where we'll be staying, and going on a hike or two inside the park.

The only thing I dread is that my idea of a hike and my sister's idea of a hike are quite different. I want to sort of, moderately stroll, and she's like exercise Hitler. I might have to put some booze in her water bottle to slow her down. Of course then she'll get chatty. Damn. I can't win either way.

Frag #5
And speaking of camping and travelling and such things...I made another comic featuring my little trailer. Have you ever looked up "Vintage Trailer Interiors" on Pinterest? Oh, My. Gosh. I could look at those cute little decorated trailer pictures all night.

Anyway, my comic site had a contest to make a comic about your dream home, so of course, I had to feature my trailer. Here it is:



Someday.

Frag #6
My last frag is just to say that I actually wrote more than one blog post this week! I know. I can't believe it either. We visited my mom and her husband in California over Labor Day weekend and I took some lovely pictures and did a quickie post about it.

If you want to take a gander at it (because I don't think anyone has read it yet, besides my sister-in-law - Hi Trish!), you can read it here. And here's a picture of my lovely mom and her sweet and supportive hubby:

Well, that's it for my frags this week. Hope you have a fun weekend and remember, "Not all who wander are lost."  - J.R.R. Tolkien

How to Pretend to Be Retired

I didn't do a Friday Frag post last Friday, but I have a very good reason. They hubby and I went up to Hesperia California to visit my mom and her husband for the long weekend.

We love visiting my mom because she lives in a semi-rural area in Hesperia and has a large yard filled with a garden and birds and squirrels and other wildlife. We like pretending we're old retired people with nothing too terribly important to do.

So, what do you do when you're visiting your mom for the weekend in a somewhat small town? Well, I'll tell you:

First you get mani/pedis, of course. I forgot to take toe pictures.

Then you visit a bakery called Bodacious Buns ( I know, right?) and look at the cute cakes on display and wish you knew how to do cake decorating.

It's a couple in a hot tub. Isn't that adorable??

Then you split a scrumptious lemon bar with your mom and talk about how delicious the shortbread crust is and the lemon curd filling and the cream cheese frosting. And you and mom chat with the shop owner about Garden club and organic food and religion.

Then you move on to an antique store that just opened up that your mom's been wanting to go to. And you ooh and aah over all the cute vintage-y things like these jars that have been decoupaged and embellished until they're just too cute for words:

Decoupage, beads, lace, tiny flowers and a glue gun. Couldn't you see your makeup brushes standing up prettily in this?

Love the shape of this one!

After browsing for an hour at the antique store, you go back to mom's and take pictures of her garden:

An old ladder with a few old, worn birdhouses sitting on it makes for cute garden decor, don't you think?

I love Mexican Bird of Paradise. Mom has several of these bushes in her yard.

Then you take pictures of mom drinking wine in her garden:

My beautiful, happy mom.

And you can't resist taking pictures of the sky at dusk because it's so beautiful and every single dusk looks different:

Dusk from Mom's yard

The next day you sit in mom's garden again and you and mom decide that the side of the chicken house needs some paint. You have no mural painting skills whatsoever, but decide to start painting then and there:

Planted myself in the dirt and decided to paint me some flowers on the chicken house.

Then you make your husband take pictures of you and mom painting the chicken house and you make sure and pose like an idiot.

Add caption

By then it gets hot, so you go inside and decide you want an agave margarita (of which my step-dad makes delicious ones), but he gets out the blender and you say, no, they were on the rocks last time he made them and he says no, he blends them and you say no, you're sure they were on the rocks, and he says fine, you make them.

So you do. You mix tequila, lime, agave, ice, and a little water in a cocktail mixer and shake it up real good and oh, they are delicious. Then you all laugh about how you bickered over how to make them. Then everyone takes a nap because you made them too strong.

After passing out napping, you finish painting the chicken house:

You can't see it real well, but the left side and the right side are painted tree trunks. Those green things on the top are leaves. Mom had a bunch of old birdhouses, so we nailed them up like they're hanging on the branches of the tree that you can't tell is a tree.

After another beautiful dusk, you help cook dinner and you have delicious homemade ice cream for dessert. Ice Cream made with homegrown figs and peaches:

There's fig ice cream with bourbon sauce, peach ice cream, strawberry ice cream, and carmel ice cream. 

Of course, you have to get up early the next morning to head home and you must take a picture of the pretty sunrise which you can see from your bed:

No filter on this one. Can you see the little sliver of white moon off to the right?

 On the way home you must take pictures of the cloud formations because they are so clear and white:

No filter on this one either. Doesn't it look like a swan, with the neck to the right and the body on the left?

I did put a filter on this one. The sky was just beautiful on the drive home.

And that's what you do when you visit your mom in a small-ish town over the weekend and pretend like you're a retired person.

I can't wait to retire!

Hello Friday, I'm back to Fraggin' ya

Friday was a long time a comin' but it's finally here! I've missed a couple weeks of Friday Frag posting, just because I've been spending too much time making comics and neglecting my blog it's been a little busy around here, but I'm trying to get back to fraggin' again.

I heard Friday Frags are back home at Mrs. 4444. Thanks to her for hosting and thanks to Unknown Mami for being such a gracious host while the Mrs. was on vacation!

Frag #1
I went back to my Blogger profile because Google+ was making me crazy! I thought I'd be all cool and hip and new with my Google+ profile, but the darn thing kept making my email address a "no reply". You know what I'm talking about right? When you go to reply to someone's comment and instead of their email address coming up, it's a "no-reply@blogger.com" or some such thing?

It's annoying as all get out and I found out a couple months ago that I was guilty of being a no-reply person too! So I hunted around online and figured out how to fix it, but darn Google+ put me right back to no-reply after I don't know how long. All I know is I had fixed it, and I tested it and it worked, so I thought all was well, but then someone told me in a comment a few months later that I was a no-reply again.

Hells Bells. I decided that was enough of that foolishness, so I switched back to the old Blogger profile. Now my email should show up if I comment on your blog and you go to reply to me. If not, please let me know.

The other annoying thing about Google+ is you have to search a person's profile to find what their dang blog is. If you're using a Google+ profile to comment on blogs, then HEL-LOOO, you want your blog name or link to be pretty prominent on your profile. Let's face it, people (ok, me) are lazy and don't want to search around for 10 seconds to find it.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Frag #2
So I think I mentioned that we have 7 dogs in our house.

I know. I'll just give you a minute and let that sink in.

Anyway, so one of them is this little bundle of energy and exasperation named Prince. He was named before we acquired him, so, yeah, it just stuck. I think I've shown him to you before, but here's a picture:

Prince, doing the Macarena

So Prince is my hubby's little pride and joy. The apple of his eye. His beautiful perfect love, as my daughter calls him.

I know. Believe me, I know. When he comes home from work, the dog gets a kiss before I do.

Back to my story. One or more of the 7 little fiends has gotten in the habit of poo-ing and pee-ing in our foyer. Now, remember not long ago they were having their poo and pee party in our living room so we put fencing up?

Well they've decided to move the party to outside the fence. And we wanted to bust their furry little arses in action. So hubby set up a sting operation involving a camera on a motion sensor aimed at the crime scene. Whenever the camera sensed motion in the area, it would record for 1 minute and all the recordings would save on hubby's computer.

Now, let me just preface this by saying that I suggested more than once that the guilty party may just be his perfect little love, Prince. On a few occasions he did not have an alibi when the defecation occurred. But I, of course, was shushed and shut-down immediately for merely mentioning the possibilty.

I would like that on record, please.

You see where this is going?

Since the majority of the poop-cidents seemed to happen at night, we left the camera on all night for two nights in a row. Of course, the next morning, there were puddles and piles, so off hubby went to his computer to review the footage.

I had to leave for work, but later I get an email from my hubby with the subject line: Very Princeappointed. And this is the picture he sent me:

The poopetrater in action!

Yup, his little pride and joy was the poopetrater. Well, he wasn't the only one, his sister (Prince's, not hubby's) was guilty too, but Prince was the worse of the two.

And now I think my blog has fallen to a new low because I just showed you a picture of my dog pooping. What's sadder is this whole little sting operation was like, the highlight of our week.

That's both sad and gross. Let's move on.

Frag #3

I'm obsessed with travel trailers and taking off in one into the wild blue yonder. A few weeks ago we went to an RV and travel trailer show here in town and now of course, I'm all spun up about A. getting one and B. living and travelling in one. And I mean, like permanently.

I don't want a big bus of a thing that's like an apartment. I just want a small, cozy little thing that me and the hubs can tool around in and live the nomad dream. Something like this:

Ok, maybe just a wee bit bigger, but you get the idea. Does anyone else have this obsession?

I'm so obsessed with it, in fact, that I made comic of a trailer so that at least my comic character can go all the places that I can't go right now. It was darn challenging to make, too! I had to put the whole thing together out of shapes, from scratch. It didn't come out to bad, if I do say so myself.

While I was at it, I made a little idyllic scene for my comic character to chill out in. Click on the little 4 arrow thingie in the lower right corner to make it bigger. Nice, eh?

Ahh, someday that will be me in that little trailer. And my dogs. And my hubby.

Yeah, you probably don't want to camp anywhere near us.

Well that's it for my Friday Frags. I hope everyone had a week as poop-ductive as mine and hope you have a great weekend too!

Ok, one last thing. The comic site I use just added animation to their site so we can make comics and throw in a little movement, which is kind of cool. I made a practice comic (it's really lame) and I just want to see if the embed feature works ok with the animation. So please indulge me while I put it here. Again, it's a little lame and I was just trying out the animation feature and I still need a lot of practice. But here it is:


Well, I see the first panel works fine, but my character looks like she's afflicted with a nervous disorder in the second panel. I guess they're still getting all the bugs out.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

If you want to check out more Friday Frags, or post some up yourself, link up with Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin' Time!

Friday Frags...On Saturday

So when you read this, you have to pretend it's Friday, because this post is for Friday Fragments and today is actually Saturday. I had a Friday Frag post pretty much written on Thursday night, but due to circumstances beyond my control...couldn't get it posted. So...let's just journey back in time and pretend it's Friday when you read this, k?

If Friday were a guy, I'd be kissing the hell out of it right now! Come to think of it, I'd kiss it no matter what it's gender. Cause I'm just so freakin glad its here!

ANYhoo, it's Friday Frag time and thanks to Unknown Mami for hosting, and here we go.

Frag #1

I didn't post a frag last week. I'm trying to remember why.....oh yeah. My niece was visiting from New Mexico and then my nephew came out too and between that and working everyday, I just couldn't squeeze it in. 

But I felt bad. I missed reading everyone's frags and plan to get caught up this weekend.

I almost couldn't post tonight, because I sat down at my computer and the darn thing wouldn't turn on.

Then I remembered I can blog from my iPhone, so I'm trying that now. Not sure if my comics or pic will show right, but lets just see.

And I just realized how terribly boring my first frag is. Are you still with me?

Frag #2

My sister texted me my horoscope the other day. Here it is:

August scope for u: You'll burn through your to do-lists with a fired-up Mars in your sign this month. Go easy around the 20th; a full moon could have people mistaking your dazzling productivity as just plain pushiness.

Dazzling productivity? Around my house, they call that nagging. My hubby and brother have even dubbed me The Red  Menace because I have a penchant for finding to-dos for everyone.

Did I already tell you this? I can't remember. If not, now you know. The Red Menace. That's me.

Frag #3

We're moving our office at work and I'm exhausted! We finish up the move tomorrow...I hope! 

Moving an office is just as bad as moving a house! It's a ton of work, you swear the next time you'll hire movers, and everyone is cranky. The good thing is that we're finally throwing away junk that's been sitting around for years. So it's a great time to scale down and declutter.

Frag #4

One of our dogs, Prince, just LOVES chasing tennis balls. And he always wants to play at bedtime or 6 AM.

Here he is, at 11:00 at night, with his ball, ready to play:

He's so persistent with trying to get Hubby to throw it for him, that he'll drop it on hubby's face while he's sleeping and wait for hubby to throw it. And if hubby doesn't throw, Prince will do that again...and again...and again....

So, of course I had to do a comic about that:

(Click on the little 4-arrow thingy in the lower right corner to see the whole thing. Click again to put it back.)

Frag #5
I'm really addicted to making comics right now. I have ideas for several comic series and if I had my way, I'd quit my job and make comics all day. But alas, that's just not practical. So I squeeze it in whenever I can.

The comic making site I use, Pixton, has a community that is much like the blogging community, although much younger. There's a few older wiser folks on there, like myself, but we're definitely outnumbered by the younger generation. But many of them are very talented young people.

So anyway, I made a comic about comic making and comic reading on Pixton. The names mentioned in the comic are names of other members on Pixton, just for frame of reference:

If you're interested in trying out Pixton, it's free. You can use this link and make a free account. If you do, my user name is LoriAnn, so let me know and I'll follow you!

So that's it for my Friday/Saturday frags. Hope everyone has a great weekend and a week filled with good fragments.

Frag On, Frag On!

It's Friday Frag Time! Yay!

First, I must thank our host, Unknown Mami, for letting us all spill our guts about, well, basically alot of nothing!

Frag #1
My first frag is the fact that...I don't have many frags this week. I know, that's a cop-out. I have some family visiting from California (hi, mom!) and from New Mexico, so will be busy the next week or so with them. Which is great, because I love hangin with my mom!

Frag #2
Don't you just love good sheets? (That could sound totally wrong if you say it right. Or wrong.)

For some reason, the bottom sheet on our bed always gets all ripped up. It will be fine one day, then all of a sudden, the next day, it's all ripped up in one spot. And with no amorous activities going on the night before. I mentioned we have 7 dogs in our house, right? 5 of them sleep in our bed, along with the cat, so it's a little hard to get jiggy with it with 10 or 12 eyeballs staring at you. Unless you're into that sort of thing.

But anyway, back to the sheets. We bought new 500 thread count sheets and oh, how I love them! They're so soft and comfy I just want to slide into bed every chance I get! What a difference the higher thread count makes over the cheapo ones. I'll eat Top Ramen and pinto beans if I can just keep my good sheets!

And now you know how pathetic I am that this was one of the highlights of my week. Sheets. Well, sheeeet, is all I have to say about that.

Frag #3
Have you heard of 3D printers? My boss is buying one and all of us at work are pretty excited about it. It looks like this:

Looks like one of those food replicator things on Star Trek, doesn't it?

You can make plastic parts with this thing. MAKE them. Yourself. You use this fillament, which is like thick plastic wire on spools. You program the printer to make the item you want, and away it goes. I can't wait to see it in action. It sounds so Science fiction-y, doesn't it?

Frag #4

I wrote my post all about our camping trip, which I've been talking about for ages now and you are probably sick of hearing about. If you're interested in the details and funny stories and  awesome pictures, you can read it here. It's really not very long.

If you just don't have the time to hop over and check it out, then check out my camping comics below. One tells you pretty much how the fishing went and the other explains why we aren't allowed back in the campground again. Not really. I'm pretty sure we can go back. With disguises.

Click on the little 4-arrow thingy in the right corner to make the comic full size so you can see the whole thing. Click it again to make it go back.

So that's it for my frags this week. I know, not much here, right? I'll try to have something exciting to share with you next week.  Oh wait, let me share one more comic with you that I don't think you've seen. Can you tell I'm still addicted to this comic-making stuff??




Hope you have a great weekend!

Camping Stories of Fishing and Fire and Broken Toilets. Oh My.

You know what I love about camping?

I love sitting by the campfire, staring into the flames and thinking about everything and nothing.

I love listening to my itunes classic country playlist (with a little classic rock thrown in there too).

I love being with my family, unplugged and away from work, the bills, traffic, housework, laundry...etc.

I love fishing even when I don't catch anything.

I love drinking my coffee while listening to the birds and watching the morning sun shine through the trees.

I just love it all.

This year we went to Panguitch Lake, Utah. Did I tell you guys that in a prior post? I can't remember what I told you and what I didn't, because I know I've been talking about this trip for a month now. Anyhoo, it was beautiful. I shared a couple pictures in my Friday Frag post, but here's a few more:

Do you smell the pine? Or maybe that's the bathroom not far away. I tell you the truth, I would be ok with an outhouse, if I had this view out the peephole everyday.

This is Cedar Breaks, which is right near Panguitch.

It's gorgeous, no?

The morning sun through the trees.

Me and my sissy. I'm on the left. I'm so not photogenic.

So, I'm sure you're all on the edge of your computer chairs, wondering how the fishing went. After all, we did have a fishing lesson and everything. Well, in the words of NASA as they described the Apollo 13 mission, it was a Successful Failure.

Oh, we spit on the marshmallows, and rigged our poles (well, actually, my uncle rigged them before we got up there), and tried the neon green bait, but them fish just weren't 'a bitin. Not to mention, the darn marshallows would not stay on the hooks. And they made a sticky gooey mess, which I proceeded to get all over my reel.

The best way to tell you exactly what happened is to *ahem* comic-fy it, of course!

So the chick with the weird looking blue hat on (in the comic) is me. It's supposed to me my "adventure hat" which I wear whenever I camp. It's the one I'm wearing above, in my picture with my sister. 

I used to have a cool adventure hat, like the one my sister is wearing (which we both bought in Zion), but I lost mine in the Virgin river when I dove off my inner tube and into the water to pull my little cousin out who had slipped off her inner tube. It sounds quite heroic when I say it like that, but it really wasn't a big deal - there were like, 4 of us with her and we all dove in after her, so she was fine.

The only casualty was my great hat. I had bought it a couple years prior, so when I went back to the same store to get it, they didn't have it anymore.

But, I digress. Back to my comic. I'm the one in the dorky blue hat and my sister is in the baseball cap. It was the closest thing to her adventure hat they had. In comic world. So here's my comic story of our fishing escapade:

(Click on the little 4 arrow thingy in the lower right corner of the comic to make it bigger)

Yup, that's pretty much how it went. I say it was a Successful Failure because we failed at catching any fish, but succeeded at relaxing by the water and enjoying the scenery. And that was just fine too.

I have to say, the campsites where we were (North campground at Panguitch Lake) were very nicely kept up. The camp hosts drove around in their little cart quite often to make sure everything was going smoothly for everybody.

The only negative is that the electricity went out in several nearby towns, which affected the pump that makes the toilets flush. (Oh yeah, at this campground they had flush toilets which I thought was real nice...except when the pump goes out and you can't use them).

So all the campsites - 30 or 40 - had to use one bathroom for one night. We stood in line for about 30 minutes and let me tell you, if there was ever a time I wished I were a guy, it was then. I could have just peed on a tree and been done with it.

But on the upside, we learned a little jingle while we were waiting in line. It goes like this:
"If it's yellow, let it mellow, but if it's brown, flush it down."

Catchy, ain't it? It's a helpful little ditty to remember when you have to conserve flushes.

Fortunately, the bathroom incident only lasted one night for a couple hours and all was well. Of course, to my sister, it didn't matter because she kept a coffee can in her tent which she used in the middle of the night.

I know.

I just hold it in the middle of the night cause in the cold and dark I ain't walking to the bathroom. Not my sister, she just pees in her can. Her husband thought it was such a good idea that he instructed their 8 year old son to do the same thing when he had to pee in the middle of the night.

This is your typical 8 year old boy, mind you, that can't even manage to make it into a toilet, let alone a 5-inch coffee can. Need I say more? They had to wash just about everything in the tent the next morning. Not fun.

On my list for next year is a porta-potty with a privacy tent thingy. Just in case of any more bathroom kerfuffles. (I always thought this was pronounced ca-fauff-el. I just googled the spelling and it looks like ker-fuffle. Huh. I've been saying it wrong this whole time. What a kerfuffle!)

This would work just fine with a poop bucket inside. It's on my wish list! Right underneath one of those baseball hats with the two beer holders and long straws. Please don't go - I'm just kidding! No really, I want one of these. 

Oh yeah, I forgot to show you our tent! This is the easy-up tent we got from Wal-Mart. I loved it! it was roomy enough inside for the two of us, and tall enough for my 6' 3" hubby to stand up inside. It rained on and off the whole time and not a drop got in the tent:

Isn't that the perfect spot between those two trees? It was nice and shady for hubby to nap.

Oh, so yeah, the weather. It did rain on and off, but I really didn't mind because we had an awning which we put over the picnic table. So whenever it rained, we all just gathered under it and played cards or whatever. This is the first year we bought an awning and I should have done it soooo much sooner. It was a lifesaver.

Matter of fact, one late afternoon, it started to sprinkle and was very cloudy and we knew it would not be "sittin around the fire weather". So we pulled the awning so it half covered the table, and half covered the firepit and we were able to sit by the fire out of the rain. 

And there's a story that goes along with that.

You see, my sister had a fire already going at her campsite next to us. We were going to sit around her fire, because her campsite had more room around the firepit than mine did. But the rain kind of changed that plan. Only she didn't have an awning and we didn't want to move ours all the way over to her campsite.

So my uncle had this idea that we could move her fire over to our firepit by carrying it. In a cardboard box. 

I know. 

He and my sister put the hot logs into a cardboard box and my sister starts carrying it over to our campground. Then my uncle tells her she better hurry. So she begins to run. Which fans the logs. 

Do you see where this is going?

Halfway to our campsite, which thankfully, was right next to hers, flames begin shooting out of the box. She begins to run faster and drops the whole mess into our firepit.

Now, I'm just sitting by our firepit thinking how calm and nice the campground is, when I look up and see my sister running towards me with a box on fire. A tad unnerving.

But all was well, and we ended up with a nice roaring fire (no doubt due to the nice cardboard kindling) and we were dry.

You didn't think I'd tell this story without a comic to illustrate it now, did you?

Yup, that's pretty much how it went.

Oh, and speaking of fires, remember my sister's fire starters which she made out of lint, egg cartons, and wax? Well, by golly if they didn't work great! Who knew? I hate admitting when she's right.

Oh, and also speaking of fires, the forest fire I mentioned in my last post, which is in nearby Mt. Charleston, is now 70% contained! Such good news!

Yes, I get the irony of us almost burning down the woods at Panguitch Lake and me being relieved the fire at Charleston is almost out.

So I'll end this post now, but just wanted to tell you one more thing we did on our trip.

Several years ago, we spread some of my dad's ashes at a nearby camping area, a place he used to take us often. We've camped there several times since then and always went to the place and said hello. But we haven't been back there in about 3 years. So since we were nearby, my sister, my uncle (my dad's youngest brother AKA Roger in the cartoon), and I went by to see dad.

We had heard they changed the campground quite a bit and moved spots and we weren't sure if we could find the spot where he was, or if we could still access it. We were relieved that we could.

It was good to say hi. It's such a familiar, happy place for us all. We wished dad could have been there with us on all the camping trips my sister, brother, and I have taken since he's been gone. But we knew he was there with us, really. No camping trip is complete without us telling a story or two about my dad while we're sitting around the fire. I'm sure he was listening. Probably correcting us when we got the details wrong.

My uncle told us that dad had taken us to Panguitch Lake a couple times too. I never knew that. I began to think about the fact that campsites have been around for decades, and have seen lots of families come and go. I wish I'd known which spots we had camped in because I wondered if I stood in those spots long enough, would I hear or see ripples of our past time there? Would I see dad for just a minute?

Probably not, because someone would be honking, yelling at the crazy lady to get out of their campsite.

Anyway, it was a great trip and I'm ready to camp again. I'm thinking of taking a girl's camping trip with just my sister and my cousin in September. We'll see if we can swing it.

Thanks for indulging me and reading this post and I'll talk to y'all later. And sorry for the constant redneck English. Camping brings it out in me.

Campy Me,
Lori

Frag On Friday!

Hi Y'all!

I missed Friday Frags last week because I was camping, but I'm back with some short, but fun fragments this week. Thanks again to Claudya at Unknown Mami for hosting this fun meme each week this Summer!

Aaaand off we go....

Frag #1
Camping! We had a great time camping at Panguitch Lake, Utah last week. It was sooo nice to get out of the 115 + degree weather here in Vegas. It was 80 during the day and 40 or cooler at night at Panguitch. Heaven!

I'm posting some stories, comics, and pictures of our adventure on Saturday, but let me leave you with these for now:

Cedar Breaks, Utah. No filter on this baby. Just pure, unadulterated beauty.

Panguitch Lake, Utah. Ok, I did play with filters a bit on this one.

Full camping details in my post on Saturday, I promise!

Frag #2

I get telemarketer calls ALL the time at work. This is the conversation of one, this week:

Telemarketer: May I speak to the owner?

Me:                No, he's not in. (stock answer to telemarketers)

Telemarketer: When will he be in?

Me:                May I tell him who's calling?

Telemarketer: It's personal.

Me:                May I tell him what company you're with?

Telemarketer: I'm calling from the office of Perry Bush.

Me (and I swear, I honestly did not understand the first name) Harry Bush?

Telemarketer:  *Silence*

Me:                 Did you say Hairy Bush?

Telemarketer:  *Laughing*  PERRY. PERRY BUSH

Me (finally getting why this is so very, very, funny): Ohhhh. PERRY. Yeah, I thought the other one sounded funny!

I think she'll think twice about the fake name she chooses to give next time.

Frag #3:

There have been 5 wildfires raging in our state (Nevada) this month, all at the same time. One is very close to Las Vegas. It's the Carpenter One fire (I have no idea why it's called that), about 40 minutes North of us in Mt. Charleston.

Mt. Charleston is a beloved getaway for all Las Vegans. It's a beautiful area with hiking trails, campsites, many homes, a couple of lodges, and cabins. 28,000 acres have burned since it started on July 3rd. It's so sad for everyone who lives here, and especially for those that live on the mountain. Residents up there have been evacuated and they are hoping and praying that they have homes to return to.

Our sky has been filled with smoke and ash for days. Today there was a little rain and there is supposed to be some up on the mountain, so we're all hoping it helps the firefighters get the blaze under control. Here's a couple pictures of the smoke from our house:

The sun is just a little red dot amidst all that smoke.

It's a very eerie sky.

Here's the smoke billowing from the mountain at night.

I'm hoping and praying that the firefighters get it contained and stay safe doing it.

Frag #4

I want to leave this on a positive note, so here's a couple new comics I made at Pixton. Click on the little 4-arrow thingy on the lower far right corner of the comic to make it bigger.

Hee hee. That second one is me and my hubby.

If you want to try your hand at comic making, click here and register at Pixton for a free account. Give it a try, so I can have a comic-making buddy!

Well, that's it for my frags this week. Hope you had a good week and please stop back by to read my camping story on Saturday. If you want to. No pressure.

If you want to read more frags, or frag yourself (heh, heh. That sounds wrong), then hop on over to Unknown Mami and link up!