Lonesome Dove Review

Yes, there was plenty of book club fodder to mull over, it was beautifully written, hence the pulitzer prize, but I just did not like this epic American western. Here's why...
-All but one of the women characters were "whores" past or present. By the end of the book I felt like if I read that word one more time I would spit. Women were poorly portrayed.
-This book caters to a male audience, it has got to be every dirty old man's dream.
-My favorite character was killed off.
-The ending was inconclusive, when I invest over 800 pages into a book I expect a little more closure, even if it's vague, but to just end like it did ahhhh!!!(less)

Foul Fowl Part II

Remember this guy?

Remember that I mentioned there was more than a mockingbird that plagued my life?

Fast forward 3 years and a move to a different locale, the story continues. One would think that with a move to a different neighborhood the problem would be alleviated. Unfortunately, moving does not make problems disappear, especially when the problem has wings and your number tattooed on his pointy little beak. The mockingbird seems like small fry compared to the unusually high concentration of my neighbors who seem to enjoy the crowing of confused roosters. Rooster X likes to start crowing at midnight, he is programmed for a nocturnal schedule, his owner works the night shift? Rooster Y begins at 3am and continues until the sun comes up, I want to choke his little chicken neck and bury him, deep fried, in the bottom of a KFC bucket. Rooster Z, my closest little feathered nemesis, wakes at 4:30 and continuously crows until someone stops hitting the snooze button around 5. Rooster Z has the loudest most insistent screech you will ever hear piping out of a domesticated animal, I'm pretty sure he was the one who kept me awake when I lived in the previous house. On the plus side, he does his business and then shuts up. On the negative side, he roosts 2 acres away in my neighbors coop. Proximity to screechy rooster is going to drive me to drastic measures, which may or may not be legal.

Plan A: What you mean that isn't a dove? It being dove hunting season and all I thought I could feign innocence when I blasted Z with my husband's 12 gauge. I don't want to use my good ol' Red Ryder and risk any chance on it surviving. However, he (the husband) keeps hiding the bullets from me.

Plan B: Train my ferocious feline, Mr. Hyde, to hunt roosters. Worthless cat is untrainable. He is too lazy to even chase the quail that eat his cat food.

Plan C: Involves me letting the neighbors wolves loose. Yes, my other neighbors have wolves. Yes, they howl and yes, I believe they like chicken. The down-side to this plan is how to keep the wolves from eating me first.

Plan D: A covert operation in the dead of night to relocate Z to another "farm."

Plan E: An out-patient procedure to remove his squawk box. Practically painless and nobody goes to the farm

Plan F: Want to come over to my house for dinner tonight? About 5ish. See you then.

PS-I will completely deny this post if you turn me in to the association for protection of roosters and then I will buy you a rooster. A big shiny one.

For Anyone Out There Who Still Reads This....

I am fat, tired, cranky and truly hate being pregnant. Yeah I know it's a miracle and yeah I know it's all worth it in the end....but that doesn't mean I have to like it!!! So judge me if you will but I am so uncomfortable and hot and miserable!! And I thought some one should have to hear about it!!!

Sincerely, Ashley

Am I the only terrible person out there that just struggles with being pregnant? Am I the only one who doesn't think it is the greatest thing ever?

The Simple Things

Isn't it funny how the simplest things make you the most happy? Or maybe I'm just easy to please. Ella was having a hard time falling asleep tonight, so I decided to go lay by her for awhile. (Gasp!! What!? I know I broke some modern parenting commandment, I'm sure, but its just not something I care about.) It made her so happy and so much more calm to have me there. She reached out and held my hand and I just watched her slowly drift off to sleep. Every now and then she would smile a sleepy smile at me and sigh. Then her eyes would flutter shut again. My cat came wandering in, feeling left out. She curled up behind my knees and promptly began to purr. I love a good purr. I think she was also trying to hold hands, because she placed her paw on my leg. I reached down and covered it with my hand and she rested her chin on top off it. She closed her eyes and purred so hard my leg vibrated.

So I just laid there. Watching my daughter sleep and enjoying Molly's purr. And I just felt truly happy. Isn't it funny how that happens? Something so simple or common seems so wonderful?


What is your wonderful, simple moment?

In the Saddle Again

I'm baaaaccckkk!
Not in a Christina Aguilera girl empowerment kind-of way, but in a "i'm baaaaccckk" dododooo twilight zone kind-of way.
Last night the clouds parted and a sliver of moon-light shined on me and wallllaaaa I could (temporarily) breathe out of two nose holes again. It makes one downright giddy to have the use of the complete olfactory system.
Nothing makes me feel more like rounding-up Bonnie and Clyde for a rendezvous at the local Walgreen's to heist nose spray, than the inability to breathe through my nose.

Hope comes to blah blah blahg. No more holidays, birthdays, weddings or other distractions to deter my mindless ramblings. Not to mention the use of two nose holes will lead to a greater quantity of posts. Just remember, quantity, not quality.
Here's to hope and deep-breathing. See you again soon.

New Subject

Due to the fact that: my sister has neglected blah blah blahg, and I have nothing interesting to say; this blog has remained untouched for sometime. And as it is 3 o'clock in the morning and I can't sleep, we all get to be subjected to my night time ramblings.

A few of my favorite things lately:

The weather. I love cold and deary days. I do. But after a month of them I can honestly say, I am happy to see the warmer weather!! I'm afraid by admitting that out loud, my mother may now have a hit on my name! Am I now admitting that I like the desert conditions? Gasp! Say it ain't so!

I LOVE ZUMBA!! It kicks my butt in a serious way! And I love a good work out. I sweat like an animal, and it makes me sore. A good sore, not that, "why did I make this choice; I hate exercise" sore. I initially did NOT want to got to this class. You see, I am not so good at the dancing. But I went to stop my sister from badgering me about it! And it was so much fun!! And such an awesome work out!

I am so excited to start gardening. I don't do vegetables or anything like that. I wish I did, but I just don't have the dedication to coax them through the heat, only to yield an assortment of food I don't ever eat. But I love to do flowers. Rose bushes are my favorite. Why you might ask? Because, surprisingly, they are hard to kill! I didn't water mine for 2 months, a good rain came, and they bloomed! Suh-weeeeet!

Anyways, I couldn't stand the same old post on here any longer, and I can't sleep. SOOO here you are!!