I’m Just Saying

The “Never Have I Ever” Meme

/ Ally Bean / 16 Comments

This week has been a slow slog for me.  If you rob me of an hour of sleep, this is what you get: a woman with a tired brain who is incapable of creating much of anything.    

Then while reading Knocked over by a feather & Fish of Gold I saw their versions of this meme, and I remembered the Never Have I Ever Drinking Game.  Suddenly, doing this meme seemed like the perfect subject for a TGIF post.  

Happy weekend, everyone.  Enjoy!

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  • Never have I ever ridden on a motorcycle.
  • Never have I ever grabbed eggs from a hen’s nest.
  • Never have I ever owned a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes.
  • Never have I ever watched an episode of American Idol or The Voice.
  • Never have I ever regretted having this house built.
  • Never have I ever smoked pot purchased legally in Colorado.
  • Never have I ever worried about whether someone thinks that I’m bossy.  
  • Never have I ever knitted a sweater.
  • Never have I ever thrown a TV out a window.
  • Never have I ever inconvenienced other people with my luggage on an airplane.
  • Never have I ever ordered a Long Island Iced Tea.
  • Never have I ever run or walked a marathon of any length.  

Late Winter Weather Keeps Me Guessing

/ Ally Bean / 18 Comments

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Delightful.

Saturday afternoon was sunny and about 55ºF outside.  I wandered around our property and found this green patch of pachysandra juxtaposed against the blah browns of the forest primeval.  Isn’t it a pretty reminder that Spring is on its way?

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Invigorating.

Yes, a mere 40 hours ago I was walking down these limestone steps to get to the lower terraced level of our property.  In fact, once down there I paused to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

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Inspiring.

And then I spent a few minutes taking photos of what I saw: the blue sky above an evergreen tree surrounded by tall golden grasses, for instance.

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Dangerous.

However, that was then and this is now.  Today, Monday morning, there’s white stuff everywhere, even outside the front door.  Can you find the step to the stoop, covered in 3″ of snow, that leads to our front door?  Look closely now.

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Annoying.

Oddly enough, it’s as if this last Saturday never happened.  Sunshine and warmth?  There was none that around here, you silly girl.  You must have dreamed it all, says the Winter that’ll never end.

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Keep Moving. Blog Maintenance. Nothing To Look At Here.

/ Ally Bean / 18 Comments

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

You looked, didn’t you?  You just couldn’t stand not knowing exactly what I was doing.

And now that you’re here you’re kind of wondering why I’m doing that which I’m doing.  I know how you think, my gentle readers.  So I’ll tell you.

I’m claiming my blog, The Spectacled Bean, at Bloglovin’.  By placing what I did at the top of this little post, I am lead to believe that I’ll have:

And with that said, I’m publishing this post.  Hoping that I’ve done that which they want me to do in a way that pleases them, so that I might have that which they tell me I can have, which would please me.

Hallelujah and pass the potato salad, let’s see what happens next.

The New Neighbor Who I’m Not So Crazy About

/ Ally Bean / 22 Comments


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Image Source: Sweet Clip Art

A neighbor clued me into the fact that there’s a registered sex offender living on our street.  He moved here, sometime in the fall, into a smaller house on the edge of the subdivision.

I went online to the Sex Offender Registry to find out what he’d done, what he looked like and his exact street address.  The information about his crimes was complete.  There were two photos of him, one taken years ago and one more recent photo.  Then Z-D & I drove up and down the street until we located his house.

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I have mixed feeling about this development.  On the one hand, he has served his time and is doing exactly what the law requires him to do by registering.  Perhaps there’s been some therapy along the way?  He might be contrite, reformed.

But on the other hand I’m judgmental enough to not trust a 30-something, college-educated male who solicited minors online and got caught by the police when he showed up for the meeting.  There’s something morally wrong with this scenario that I’m not sure I can overlook.

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Thinking about it all, my negative attitude might be a bigger indictment of my inability to forgive than it is an accusation against him.  Clearly, I haven’t yet figured out how to process this information, as this is the first time, to my knowledge, that I’ve lived near a registered sex offender.

I’ll let you know if/when I shift into a more forgiving point-of-view, but in the mean time, I think that I’ll just keep my distance from that end of the street.  There are plenty of other directions I can walk around here.  No need to tempt fate with an accidental meeting.