Do I really need a comment policy? I don’t think I’ll make an official one, YET, but I thought I might take a minute to let you know how I go about approving (or not) the comments on this blog. All first time commenters are moderated. Period. You need not leave multiple comments, it’s not an accident if your comment doesn’t show up right away. It’s totally intended to work that way.

See, I allowed this blog to be put on the do follow list, because I do give my commenters some reciprocal value for taking the time to stop by and chat. And don’t worry about what the green toolbar says. If you have a do follow comment on this blog, you are getting juice from a site that is at least PR4 and possibly PR5. The juice is still flowing.

But, I do read the comments, and I try respond to them, or at least the ones I approve. Advertisements for tramadol, viagra and cialis are routinely deleted, comments for other commercial site are either deleted or edited, depending on my mood, and other comments are weighed in the balance of my cold, cold heart, and if I find them acceptable, they pass.

Let me give an example. No one is actually named Rolex Daytona. Now, Rolex is a fine brand, and the Daytona 500 is a much anticipated event here at chez Musings, but I am not going to approve your comment if you put that in the name field. It’s not your name! If your comment is particularly worthy, I may just edit your name, if I am in a generous mood. Don’t count on that, though.

Also, please try to stay on topic. If I have just blogged about my Grandmother’s death, or losing an eye or some such thing, do not use that post as an opportunity to ask me about affiliate marketing or paid blogging or proper spice technique or any other such stupid thing. You know who you are. And DON’T tell me how your product could have prevented such and such. Just sympathize or offer concrete help with your real and actual name or move on. Not too difficult if you accept that the author of this blog (that would be me) is an actual person with actual feelings and that this blog is not your personal billboard.

Finally, relax, I enjoy interacting with you!. I’m not an ogre, in spite of the fact that lately I have been emailing spammers to let them know they can buy advertising for a fee. None of them have responded, though. Imagine that.

Hmm, that gives me an idea. How about this for an official policy: If in doubt, send paypal first.

Muhahahahahahahahahahahahah

I’m going to estimate that it has been close to two weeks since I have had a good night’s sleep. First I was sick with the flu, and couldn’t breathe through my nose. Except for when it unplugged and I woke up choking and spluttering on my own hot snot. (Umm, oops, let me go add a warning in the title. Okay, done.) And now, I am feeling a bit better and I can breathe but my RAD is flaring, and when I lay down my bronchus starts spasming and I start coughing, and that’s that, I have to get up. I’m prone to bronchitis and have been all my life, but I discovered several years ago that I could prevent each and every little sniffle from turning into bronchitis IF, and only if, I never allowed a cough to win. Since I enjoy bronchitis like other people enjoy the blindiing glare of a Hella light in their eyes, Mucinex is my friend. I thought I had taken my last one last night, and so this evening I went out for more. Turns out, I still had a few tucked away in a secret-to-me location, and dh found them.

The trip to Walgreen’s wasn’t a total wash, however. Marc Anthony shampoos and conditioners are BOGO, so I picked up some of those. I have some of the curl lotion, and I really like what it does for my hair. I’m excited to try the other products. And also? If you don’t think the smell of lemon pie is the sexy?? You are the wrong.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the cough. Tonight, I will take the pill before I lay down. Instead of waiting for the cough to arrive, I will strike first. And then I will sleep. And I am saying this so that it will be true, because ya’ll my brain is so fried I couldn’t even remembe the types of foods we eat for lunch around here when I tried to make my menus earlier. That’s whack, ya’ll. We eat lunch every. day.

One of the things I want to do now that I have consolidated blogs is to talk more about my home. I love living in North Carolina, and while I haven’t been to a plethora of places, I have been to several. I’ve never found a place that suits me better than here, not even across the ocean. When I was away, I only wanted to get back. And now that I’m here, I’m still loving it, and I can’t imagine ever leaving again, aside from vacations. Which I also like a whole bunch, but that is not today’s topic.

Today’s topic is Fire Ants!

What a title for a first post celebrating North Carolina, eh? Well, I have a friend and I mentioned the wee buggers to her one day, and she was enthralled. See, she lives where there are no fire ants, and so since “she’s not from here, bless her heart”, I’m gonna humor her a bit. Kinda like Crazy Aunt Fanny, ykwim?

Now, fire ants are tiny things. This picture was taken with my macro function and yes, those are actual grains of sand, and the actual ants swarming in them. You can click the picture to see it bigger. Now, fire ants bite to get a grip, and then they sting repeatedly. People usually encounter them when they disturb a “bed” without realizing where they are going. That’s one good reason to wear shoes year-round, now isn’t it? One would think so, but the truth is the nasty things can get inside your shoes before you can back out of the bed. People have died from fire ant bites, because the venom can cause anaphylactic shock. You can read more about them at Wikipedia

I was asked how big a fire ant mound gets, so I have taken this picture with a 3×5 card for scale. Bear in mind that all the dirt you see on top of the ground came from under it, so this is just a part of the colony. It goes at least that deep underground, and probably much deeper. I don’t plan to dig in there to find exact measurements if it’s all the same to you.

So, I am reading my novel last night, the one I told you about yesterday, and two of the characters are looking at a “facebook” seeing who they recognize. Facebook? Facebook. That’s why they call that site Facebook. I swear ya’ll it was a lightbulb moment. Because that’s not what we call it here. Here, it’s an Annual. Seriously. That’s why I have never understand the allure of Facebook. But now?? Oh, I am so there.

Did that get your attention? I thought it might. And I’m not talking about just the box. I mean the box, five games, several controllers and everything you need to start playing right NOW. And while I think Wii’s are cool, and the kids might like it, I grew up without a video game system, and I could probably live without one forever. BUT, the folks who are giving away the Free Wii are also auctioning off a lifetime of highspeed internet. And that is something we all use, a prize I could really enjoy, yk? Like daily. And for the rest of my life.

Once you Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo® Wiiâ„¢!, you’ll be asked for your address and zip code. You do have to be in their service area to get the internet, and to enter the contest for the Wii. Unfortunately for me, here in Bittyburg, I can’t play. But don’t let that stop you. Go preregister and then bid. The auction runs from March 12th to March 26th, and the opening bid is just ten bucks. Considering I pay about $360 a year for internet, I’m thinking that could end up being a heckuva deal, even without a free Wii.

I was just over at Gemz N Gold, where I saw this pretty dangling black pearl ring. I like black pearls, and the price is right, but I have a couple of questions. Those of you that have dangling rings, can you wear them all the time? Like, do they catch on stuff? And also, are they aggravating? And what makes a pearl black anyway?

I guess I can answer that last part, with a little help from wikipedia. Pearls get their color from the nacre of the mollusk that forms them. BUT, freshwater pearls can also be dyed. Of course, today we get most of our pearls from pearl farms instead of random harvesting from the ocean, but the process is intensive, and time consuming. You know, I think that’s about all I want to know about that. It kinda takes the magic away to know too much about some things, doesn’t it? Life’s like that sometimes.

(or at least, that’s the name on the email you sent me this morning) I am a girl. I do not have a penis. But if I did have a penis, it would be huge, like as big as the Eiffel Tower, and I still would not need your “peni$ growth oil”, which really sounds to me like a phony excuse for you to play with yourself.

If you are reading this in a feed reader, pop on over a minute, I want you to see something. For the rest of you that are already here in person, let me know what you think. I found this theme again last night, and I just had to have it again. I say again, not because I’ve ever used it here, but because this is the very first theme I used, way back when I started CassKnits! I was up way late tweaking it and getting it just so.

I like it because it has actual space between paragraphs AND because the pictures handling is flexible. Well, actually, I had to add that part in, but I was able to do it quickly and easily, unlike the last theme that required a clear div to NOT wrap text. I never thought I would not want pics to align left until that’s ALL I could get, LOL.

Today’s Picture

I took this picture of my DH a few days ago. It’s not the best picture ever; I am short already and I was sitting when I took the picture as he stood here by the desk. I know the eye is most easily drawn to those cute babies, but mine goes to the face in the middle.

Ok, I think I am done for now. I’ve got plenty of housekeeping to do today, both in my actual home and also some bloggy stuff, not the least of which is trying to figure out what I am going to blog about tomorrow.