What a Difference a Pillow Makes

For a while now I've woken up feeling like total crap.  Stiff, creaky neck, headaches, stuffed up nose, post nasal drip dry cough and generally feeling like a herd of River Dance people stomped on me (a nightmare in itself).

I tried drugs, thinking it was just allergies.  They didn't really work, still woke up feeling crappy.  After trying a myriad of different possible solutions, I decided that I needed a new pillow.  I liked my squishy down pillow, but it was about all squished out and not supportive at all, so I went in search of a pillow that would fit my sleeping patterns, which consist of this:

Every night, Meeshka sits on my head, Sam and Loki fight for the foot of the bed. 

After about 20 minutes, Meeshka gets too hot and jumps down, so Loki stomps all over me and takes her spot and sleeps half on the end table and the other smelly half is shoved in my face.  Sam takes the whole foot of the bed.

After about 20 minutes, Loki spreads his full ample ass and takes over the whole head of the bed through the ingenious use of swift kicks to my face with his pokey little feet, and Sam oozes into taking over the foot and half of the middle of the bed. 

The "No Dog Zone" is Lobersterman's side of the bed.  He made it very clear from the beginning that no dogs are allowed over there, and they respect it, unless he's eating something, and then all bets are off.

So, the perfect pillow would have to be for someone that sleeps on their side, back, face, half off the bed and toward the center of the bed, sometimes sliding off the bed.

I went to Kohls and searched.  I found two really nice dresses for work and then actually made it back to the pillow department, where I tested each pillow for comfiness, but most were ONLY for one position or another... until... I found this:

Now I have to say that I'm not crazy about the whole memory foam thing.  Lobsterman had one and it seemed like it was too squishy and it also was HOT!  Coming from someone who is a potential candidate for spontaneous human combustion at night, the LAST thing I need is a pillow to contribute to the overall over-heating problem I have, but this one is different.

Its actually a memory foam pillow on one side, and a nice squishy down-like pillow on the other side.  It felt really supportive and its made for sleeping in any position... oh and it was half off.  Oh hell yeah, its mine!

I took it home, changed the dog fur laden sheets and put a new pillow case on it, and then couldn't wait to go to bed to try it out.

This morning I woke up... and felt AMAZING!  No crappy sinuses, barely any neck ache, no headache, slept like a log (even with Loki kicking me in the face) and wow!  Holy crap!

Now I'm wondering if I was allergic to the real down pillow.  I really can't believe how much better I feel after using this thing.  I give it two solid thumbs up and can't wait for my afternoon nap.

Fond Childhood Memory #937: Running Away

As I'm sure the majority of you have done, when I was a teenager I decided to run away.  I don't distinctly recall the reason, but I'm pretty sure it was something major like my parents wouldn't let me do something that would have ended with me losing some fingers and an eye, which is just like parents to keep their kids from doing fun things.

Regardless of the reason, I pronounced to my father that I hated everyone and was going to run away.

Dad: Ok
Me: I'm serious, I'm running away.
Dad: Fine, where do you want to go?
Me: I'm not telling you because then you'll know and that defeats the whole purpose of running away!
Dad: Well, I was going to offer to drive you to the bus station and buy you a one way ticket.
Me: what?
Dad: You don't have to stay where the bus drops you off, but at least I'll know that you are out of the county.
Me: What?
Dad: well, if you just "run" away from home, you probably won't get very far and end up back here.

I was going to mention to him that I ran Cross Country and would at least make it five miles away before tiring, but...

Me: FINE!  Let me go pack my things.
Dad: Well, I would like to point out that most of your stuff isn't really yours, I mean your mother and I paid for those things, we're just letting you use them.
Me: WHA?
Dad: You can take whatever you paid for, but the rest has to stay here.
Me: but... but...
Dad: ok, fine, you can take the clothes you are wearing, now is there anything else you've paid for?
Me: YOU'RE NO FAIR!

At this point I stomp upstairs

Dad: well, if you aren't running away today then you'll have time to weed the garden before supper.

This Old Foreclosed House - Update

Yeah, yeah, I know, its been a while since I've updated my blog.  Frankly there's just so much stupidity going on that its overloaded my brain.  There just isn't enough time in the day to blog about all of it, it would be a full time job... if full time job meant sitting on my ass all day and blogging while shoving cheese doodles in my face and not getting paid.

So, here is the latest installment of "This Old Foreclosed House", because there's just oodles of stuff going on there.

First, let's all recall what the craptastic foreclosed house looked like for a few years while it went through the foreclosure process:

Through years of complaining to the Health Department, we finally got them to cover the half filled with crap and water mosquito swarmed inground pool wreck:

So... there it sat for a few years, with more phone calls, more complaining to the bank that owned it...

FINALLY, some work started getting done on it, but we're pretty sure they contracted out to the local "some guy who has a pickup truck and a screwdriver" to do the work because...

Some guy with a pickup truck and a screwdriver and some friends started dismantling the back addition to the house and throwing all of the debris into the pool.  When they were done throwing the back end of the house in the pool, they threw the vermin filled shed in the pool, broke up the concrete around the pool and threw it in the pool and then...

Yep, brought in fill dirt and started burying all of the junk.  They also left half of the rickety deck up... for some reason.  Sure, we called the health department about it, but by the time they showed up...

In ground pool?  What in ground pool, I have no idea what you're talking about... please note, the fence is gone now... 3 guesses on where it went.

Allrighty then.  It came as no surprise when this happened:

Which meant even more dirt on top and some straw, to make it very tasty:

There!  Nobody will know what kind of crap is buried under there, and lets rip off the siding while we're at it... yeah, that looks GREAT!

How about we build an extension to the rickety deck using 2x4s for supports with no supports at the back... yeah, that would be great!  We can also throw mis-matched gray siding to it, and as an added bonus, lets throw some of that gray siding over that window we boarded over... yeah, that looks GREAT!

There was a LOT of speculating and even some betting as to whether the deck was level.

 Hubby claimed it was all an optical illusion because of the way the boards were, and the darker crappy rotted wood of the old section... so I went over and checked.

Yep, its level... amazingly enough, its level.

So then... they started painting the gray siding white... I have no idea.

The part that really pisses me off... their "yard" looks better than mine

But at least I know that if I dig in my yard, I'm not going to unearth half a house, a shed, some fencing, concrete, insulation, drywall, mold and probably the body of a mobster.