My friend Dan is getting married next month, and I’ve been invited, and I’m taking my dad along. Dan and I grew up together, went to highschool together, still hang out several times a year as time permits, etc.

I’m not big on weddings, I don’t know why, I guess cause most of them are fairly boring to me. If I ever get married, I’d prefer to have one that is fun.

I just got off the phone with Dan, who wanted to confirm that we were coming so he could give a total count to the caterers, but he said something as we were hanging up that kind of struck a chord with me. He said to make sure that I dress up, since this is a wedding.

I can’t say I took it as an insult, I’m not exactly the most glamorous person you’ll ever meet. I wear torn clothes, boots, and rarely do anything to my hair. But my father is also very set in his roots and wears nothing but jeans, and at the very most, a nice Sunday jacket. So I’m not exactly sure what we’re supposed to do. I did just buy some new clothes with the money my bosses gave me for my birthday, which I can make a fairly suitable outfit from for a wedding I think, but it’s far from elegant.

I’m just not the type that can afford to dress up a lot. I’m very hard on my clothes, they get tore up, drug through mud, hell sometimes I even get battery acid on them from working on my trucks. It wouldn’t be very practical for me to spend money on extra fancy clothes that I’m hardly gonna wear.

My father is the same way. He wants to be buried in a flannel shirt and bluejeans, and I’ll be damned if anyone tries to stuff him in a suit in his coffin. That’s just not his way.

I don’t know, I suppose it made me feel bad or guilty more than anything. Like lesser folk, maybe.

As posted by The Happiness Project:
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So I decided a while ago I wanted to sell my engagement ring. I haven’t done it yet, because I completely forgot about it. But I intend to advertise on CraigsList and see how well I can do.

But the thought also occured to me about what to do with my wedding rings. My ex-husband did return my fathers ring back to me (though I have to remember where I put it), and I still have my mothers wedding ring. I kept them because obviously having your parents wedding rings are sentimental, especially my fathers.

The problem is, I don’t intend to wear them again. Not only would it be wrong to wear the rings I wore from my -first- marriage if I ever did get married again, but the past several years have taught me a lot about frugality. If I was to get married again, and I wanted to have a ring to symbolize that marriage, it would be one that meant something to me, with a stone that I want. Being a hobbiest rockhound gives me the advantages of relating to many different minerals, almost all of which are MUCH cheaper than diamonds and gold.

So do I sell them? I could hold on to my fathers and sell just my engagement ring and my mothers wedding ring, but who buys just a bride’s wedding ring? Perhaps I’ll just sell them all and put the money towards my fathers medical bills. It would be much more practical that way.

Yesterday when I got home from work, I was out back doing some target practice with a bale of hay and my bow.

A neighborhood kid who is about 15 years old came over to just hang out I guess. A lot of the neighborhood kids do that, or used to, but thankfully they are growing up and hardly home. I bitch about them quite a bit, because some of them are complete brats, and others have stolen egg money from us before.

He had a little box with him, but I didn’t think anything of it. He watched me shoot my bow for a bit, talked with me and my dad for a bit. I went inside when I was done, and he stayed outside with my dad. While my dad was sitting in the tree swing, the boy asked to go take a look at our turtles, apparently he has some sort of turtle obsession.

Well the bastard apparently stole one of them, as now we only have two. Right there under our nose, while we’re both home. What kind of fucking nerve is that? You better believe I’m going to chase his ass off the property next time I see him.

My dad had two of the other neighborhood teens stop by and give us the guys phone number. But goddamn. I can’t stand thieves, I really can’t. Especially when all of these fuckers are rich and my dad and I are barely getting by.

I just did a generic water test on our well water here. I don’t take the results as the “end all” results, as I know home tests kits are not as accurate, but it still gives me a basic idea.

Bacteria: negative. I’m apparently supposed to wait 48 hours for the results from this one, which is a discoloration of the water in the test tube of bacteria, but I recieved results right away. I don’t expect these results to change, only darken over the next 48 hours. Ideally the results should be negative, cause of the whole death/e.coli thing.

Lead: negative. Which causes developmental harm, neurological and kidney damage. Ideally the results should be less than 15 ppb (parts per billion). I never suspected lead in our water anyway.

Pesticides: negative. From agricultural uses, linked to cancer. Ideally you want below 3 ppb of atrazine and bellow 4 ppb of simazine. No one in our neighborhood really uses pestacides for anything. My dad likes his bugs, and we’re in the woods anyway so it would defeat the purpose of having an exterminination service.

Total Nitrate/Nitrite: best I could tell, between 2.0 and 5.0 ppm. These are usually from fertiliziers and animal waste and linked to developmental problems. I don’t live near any big dairy or pig farms, and our animals don’t produce enough waste to make any difference. But I’ll never live near a big dairy farm for this reason.

Chlorine: 0 ppm. Increases cancer risk, bad taste and smell. Ideally you want below 4 ppm. I wonder what causes most of the chlorine contamination for people?

Hardness: 50 ppm. Causes lime scale and higher detergent use. Ideally you want 50 ppm or less, so we’re pushing this one. I think most of the folks around here have hard water, and I don’t really have the time or money to invest in water softeners. So I suppose I will have to deal. I do use a filtered showerhead, which helps, but doesn’t completely eliminate it.

pH: 6.3 Can cause heavy metal leaching, plumbing damage. Ideally you want 6.5 to 8.5 ppm, so we’re under the radar here. Though our pipes are the old copper pipes and extremelly old, so there’s been some erosion over the years.

Ririan Project posted 9 ways to live a more positive life.

#2 is probably one of my hardest.
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CNN Money posted the 10 dumbest resume blunders. Should make yourself feel better.

The Diet Blog recently posted a list of 10 Sustainable Food Resources to help folks who find it difficult to find locally grown produce. I’m a big supporter of local farmers and locally grown produce, especially those that do not use pesticides and antibiotics. My father and I eat our own veggies, and we, of course, harvest our own deer meat. Sometimes we buy a cow or pig from my uncle so we know where our meat comes from.
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