Crashing Against the Rocks.......

To Anyone Left Who is Remotely Interested.........

Life on the ship lately has been through some rough seas lately................

Most tragically, days before Thanksgiving, my beloved nephson was orphaned by the death of his wonderful father.  His dad had not been feeling well and thought he had the flu. He was sadly sicker than he realized, and my nephson came home from school to find that he had passed. The coroner did not do an autopsy, so we will never really know why he died other than "natural causes". Most people who die at 51 have been chronically sick for a period of time or in poor health. It is a mystery that will haunt us for a long time. I am in the process of applying for guardianship of my nephson and getting him through this sad event. I love him so much, but am a poor substitute for his beloved father..........

During this time Blackbeard, Bonusboy, Seadog and I relocated to a bigger ship. It is a block and a half from the previous dingy, but has room for my nephson to have his own space here. Let me advise and strongly warn all who move...

....DON'T DO IT DURING THE HOLIDAYS!!!

Enough said about that.......

So the new year is upon us and I wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2009. I myself am looking forward to returning to calmer seas and posting more regularly.

Rare times on the Ship

Blackbeard surprised me the other day!!!

He got this out of its hiding place! I heard we had one, but since I never see it, I thought it was idle gossip......

He got it out to advert disaster on the ship..........

Our tiny tiny room with the special chair was out of order........

I wanted to call on a specialist, but he would have none of that.

(this is where he is ALL ABOUT BEING CHEAP (WHOOPS!) Frugal)

He disassembled the special chair while I had my finger on speed dial. I tried to tell him, its not like a computer, you just can't start tearing it apart and somehow figure out how to put it back together......

Well I must admit, he shamed his wyfe and her doubts. Before I knew it, he had it reassembled and water was where water should be......

He strutted out quite please with himself and decided to leave me to the aftermath while he moved on to other projects. 

He passed on this project......

I don't think he saw this disaster........

Seadog did his best with the tile, but was unfortunately hampered by the lack of thumbs.......

oh well, I can't blame him........but someday, it will be time to call a professional..

Nephson

Anybody besides me have a nephson?

He's my heart if anyone ever was.  I like to torture him by telling him how exciting it was for me the day he was born, as well as any other big life moments of his. Like all teenagers, his response is a dramatic eye-roll and something to the effect of "Don't you have any new stories?"This year he is a senior in high school. 

He is steadily counting down the days until he is free of compulsory ed

ucation and off to spend his relatives hard earned money on just the right school of higher learning. 

 

Today we began our University Education Shopping.....

There is nothing better than going back to school. Especially when you know that you are helping to find the right fit for what will be the most definative time of a young adult's life. (and especially since I won't be the one having to buckle down and study.)

We obediently wandered around following our tour director/student/sales rep.

Most campuses have some of these.

and these

and these.

Bonus Boy tagged along for early exposure.

He was most concerned with the whereabouts of the dining hall.

These made my heart go pitter pat.....

(It was very difficult to maintain my composure when we passed the second one.....)

This was a little secret surprise.......

Over all I'd say that things hadn't changed much since my co-ed days.....

1988

2008

Except for this....

Stay tuned for more inland adventures....

I work in a factory

Friends, Foes, and Secret Admirers.....

I have a sad truth to share about my life. I work in a factory. Not a pretty perfume factory or even something as swanky as, oh, I don't know... a decorative glass factory. I work in a dirty nasty food chemical plant.....and so that I don't get fired.....that's as far as I'll go.

Anyway, this job thing has deprived me lately of the joy of this blog thing I've started. I was checking my schedule the other day and said "Oh Goodie! I only have to work 48 hours next week!!"
So if I post a lame picture or amusing comic, it's not that I'm being uncreative...it's just that I'm stuck at that factory that pays my bills......

Note to Everyone.....

marriedtothesea.com

Woo Hoo!!! The Mojo is Back!!!

I don't know what lucky accident did it, but there is happy dancin' goin' on here!! I'm going to stop the tinkering for awhile and get back to the tale telling........

Here's one that is related to my She-ro Bossy. It's about frugality-sorta. Now with the media overkill regarding the state of the economy and real estate and groceries and gas and blah blah blah......

Doze off, wake up, oh yeah. I've heard more than one pundit say (here's where you have to use your Chicken Little voice) "Stuff your money in a mattress and hide in the closet!!" Don't budge, don't make a move........because blah blah blah blah.....

Well to buck the trend, Blackbeard, Bonus Boy, Seadog and I are making a move. It's 2 blocks exactly. Glamourpuss and Mr. Glamourpuss are selling their Glamourhome (which I have shamelessly admired for several years). They are moving 2 blocks down to their backup pad. The renters in the backup pad are moving 2 blocks away (and so on and so on). 

And yep, moneylenders are THROWING offers left and right. Anything to get piles of signatures onto piles of paper.  

Oh yeah!!! Just call us the Jeffersons!! Forget about Frugal because we are movin' on up!!

And until we can get this dinghy sold,

we will be eating ramen noodles and drinking koolaid. For special occassions, we will frequent the low-rent version of this.

Curses!! and More Curses!!!

I was SO Proud of the blog template I nabbed the other day!!! It had Ships and a Cup of Coffee, and a certain level of sophistication that I liked a lot. 

Not too busy..... 

Not too girly....

Now look at it!!! DRAB, BORING, MONOCHROMATIC!! Where is my BLING!!! IF ANYBODY COMES ACROSS IT PLEASE SEND IT HOME!!!

Finally!!

Blackbeard's Wyfe would like to thank her 2 paid viewers for their kind patience over the past few weeks. You see, Blackbeard's Wyfe has endured what could be politely termed "glitches" with her blog.

She could not guess which "bits of code" were fouling her waters and even worse her mood (and we all know how dangerous that can be).

Hopefully now that the seas have calmed and an acceptable template has been installed I can get back to the "bidness of blogging". I still have stuff I want to figure out how to do (like install fancier fonts), but now at least I have an idea of what NOT to do.....

Stay tuned.

Wanna See Something Scary?

I came home the other day to this.  

It was a bit unnerving to say the least. Blackbeard goes to pieces if his favorite gadget is not working "just so". Unlike me, who is content to curse and "hope that it gets better on its own", he digs right in. After removing two offending wires, and rearraging some shiny stuff, and plentiful coaxing and cursing from his Wyfe, we are happily navigating the information highway. 

Ever Met a Tightwad?

Here's my recommended reading. I wish I knew what happened to my copy, but this woman started a little newsletter that turned into several books. I had some friends that wore the tightwad badge so proudly, that they split the price of a subscription. 

I need to find that button and dust it off...

The Tightwad Gazette was one of the BEST guides to frugal living ever published.