Tag: spiders

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Death und Spiders

themuglytruth
Today’s episode “Death und Spiders” is on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Libsyn, Pocket Cast, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Today’s blog is short. Today’s episode, eh, not so much. But today’s episode is straight from the heart. Unscripted. No lists. No websites to reference. No links to stuff into the end of this post. We recorded today’s episode in the aftermath of the helicopter crash that killed nine people, including Kobe Bryant. We recorded today’s episode the day after Kym’s father passed away. Given the option to go dark for this week, Kym said, “Nope, let’s record,” so we did. We set up in her front porch, overlooking her yard, watching squirrels, birds, and lizards as we talked. We tackled the obvious: loved ones are not guaranteed to us forever and ever. It’s easy enough to believe we’ll have a certain number of years with each other, but the reality is sometimes they leave without any notice. Tell the ones you love, “I love you”, and remind them how much you care about them being in your life. Family, friends, pets. Let them know.

We also ponder how the role we play in people’s lives does not automatically grant us respect – or love. Respect is earned. But love is too. Honestly, there are many layers of love. We love chocolate, yeah? We love weekends. We love our parents and our kids. We love our significant other. We love driving down that long stretch of highway at daybreak. We love our country. We’re told to love everyone because love is the answer and the key to all healing. Right?

Dare we say…some love is earned. Real, deep, true emotional love is so precious – not to be given away frivolously or expect to be handed to us in spite of bad circumstances or behavior. Simply put, not everyone is entitled to this precious connection. And then there’s the fact that none of us love – or grieve – the same way. We adore celebrities we have never met and struggle to find good in a person vitally entangled in our lives. Some may potently feel the loss of a superstar, yet not know exactly how to feel when a family member who has created a lifetime of chaos crosses over. The gamut of emotions in such a situation can sometimes be accompanied by guilt and confusion. “I shouldn’t feel so sad about this celebrity” or “I should feel sadder about my family member.” Nope.

There’s no right way to feel after news of death hits us. There’s possibly a sense of relief, or confusion, hurt, anger, sadness, or sometimes nothing at all in varying stages and degrees. Grief is organic and intimately personal. It takes time to process…though that “time” cannot be dictated by anyone…not even ourselves.

So we just talked. Talked about those 9 souls in the helicopter, talked about Kym’s cantankerous dad, and talked about some of our favorite podcasts. And then, just to lighten things up, Kym sent Kris into on-air spasms of shivers by recounting her most recent arachnid encounter. It’s all pretty typical, just two old friends talking about important things, and about things that aren’t so very important at all – wrapped up in a circular conversation. Such is The Mugly Truth Podcast.

Check out The Mugly Truth Podcast’s episode “Death und Spiders” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Libsyn, Pocket Cast, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2020 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2020. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com.
Featured Photo of Photo Album by Valeria Boltneva on Pexels.com

Episodes

Toe News Is Good News

themuglytruth
Today’s episode “Toe News is Good News” is on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Libsyn, Pocket Cast, Stitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Kris survived. 17 more pods to go.

Today we are calm, all is quiet, Kris tries Death Wish coffee and survives. All seems back to normal. We even bring back some spider stories. It’s a literal #TBT (Throwback, uh, Tuesday) episode as we share interesting stories we found from the internet. We have a few good ones, but in a flourish of dramatic mic-dropping, Kym lays a doozy of a story on Kris, like she does so often. We warn you, there’s a number of screams (because spiders, and…you know, Kym’s story) and maybe you shouldn’t eat before listening. We throw in some heart-warming tales to keep the episode afloat, but don’t forget…you’ve been given a head’s up. Or maybe we should say, toe’s up? Go listen now and while you’re doing that, check out the links and photos below for a truly well-rounded experience.

Zombie Snakes

Caution, if you have Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), you’ve probably already thrown your computer out the window because of the photo below. But if you’re still peeking (perhaps a bit shaky if you’re anything like us?), rest assured that the purty little fellow is (fairly) harmless, but quite tricksy. Kris talks about the Eastern Hognose snakes who are making news lately for their defensive trick of playing dead when threatened, and then striking if something (or someone) gets too close. May we introduce to you the dramatic Eastern Hognose, otherwise knowns as ZOMBIE SNAKE (insert dramatic scary music):

This beauty right here is the North Carolina version of the Zombie Snake, or Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos) in its dark phase. Photograph taken by Patrick Coin, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en

For more information on these naughty slitherers, check out this CNN report.

Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

Beyond this lighthouse is the Islands of Adventure amusement theme park at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida, where the new and vurrrrry popular Harry Potter roller coaster just opened up. Photo by NBCUniversal. Permission (Reusing this file) Released under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License and the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License.

Be still Kris’ heart. The latest, and VERY expensive ($300 million to be exact) rollercoaster addition to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida (boohoo) is open and it seems everyone in the world of muggles and wizards is running, flying, apparating, or port-keying to be there. The lines are…wait for it…TEN HOURS long. Kris is a fan, but even if she lived in Orlando she’d be steering clear of THAT crowd (she’s 10 minutes from Disneyland and steering clear of The Galaxy’s Edge til the crowds simmer down). For a fun video about the ride, watch this NBC news report and for more details check this out. Ah, someday, Kris’ll be flying through the humid, thick Orlando air on a magical motorbike. Someday.

Good Humans

Man giving his sandals to a young girl in need.

This is the viral image Kris spoke of in relation to the Good News Network story about Officer Brian Zagorski of Niles Police Department in Illinois. For more information about Officer Zagorski, please go here. He deserves a lot of recognition for taking time out to get to know a homeless man he saw having some trouble, and then literally giving him the shoes off his feet. As for the photo above, we don’t know the full story, or who took the photo. If you know the details and more importantly the photographer, please let us know as we would like to give proper credit.

But Wait, There’s More

  • The NASA “get paid to lie in bed” story can be found here and here. We talked about the $18,500 offer, so thought we’d post both stories to let you decided if it’s still enough to make you go to Germany and literally lie in a bed for 2 solid months.
  • For the Chobani donation to school lunch programs, go here. And then go buy some Chobani to celebrate (they just came out with a “less sugar” version of their flips yogurts!)
  • Ella Casano is the extraordinary 12 year old girl who came up with the idea of cover IV bags for pediatric patients can be found here. Ella has to have regular transfusions so she decided to make the experience better for her and countless other kids who suffer the pain of the procedure.
  • Speaking of extraordinary kids, here’s the story of lovely 6 year old Eva Chapman who collected over 1,000 jars of peanut butter and jelly to help feed her classmates she knew might go hungry over the summer without the school meal program to feed them. We love Eva. We’re not crying though. NO WE ARE NOT. NOT NOT NOT. *sniff

And Now: THE STORY OF THE SOURTOE COCKTAIL (((ackkk)))

Erp. This is where things get gross. Kym saved the weirdest story for the end. Have you heard of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club based out of the Sourdough Saloon nestled in Dawson City’s Downtown Hotel in the Yukon region? It’s a club both Kris and Kym are sure they’ll never join, even though over 100,000 people HAVE joined it and still others are dying to donate to the cause. There is adventure and thievery involved, and even the United States Postal Service plays a role in this story. Mostly it’s just gross because Kris and Kym are absolutely positive the garnish of the ritual drink will never touch THEIR lips. It’s a story that’s sure to make your toes curl and your innards roil. Unless you think it’s cool, if so we’d like to say you’re kinda weird, and good luck on your trip to the Great White North. For more information on the latest update to this story, check this link. And even though Kris swore we wouldn’t sully this blog with photos of the initiation ingredients, well, see below. To our faint-of-heart, we’ll post a cute picture of a scaredy cat that you can look at if you decide you can’t view the, ah, “garnish.” All we can say is you don’t ever expect this crap with coffee. (Unless you like THIS coffee, which is literally from crap.)

Sourtoe Cocktail Preparation – Downtown Hotel, Dawson City. Photo courtesy Downtown Hotel, Dawson City, Yukon Territory by TravelingOtter
This is how we feel about the next photo. Hurry up, scroll down to get to the rest of the blog. SCROLL LIKE THE WIND! Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com
Sourtoe Cocktail Ingredients, and yes, that’s a mummified big toe. Photo courtesy Downtown Hotel, Dawson City, Yukon Territory by TravelingOtter

Check out our “Toe News is Good News” episode on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Libsyn, Pocket Cast, Stitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2019 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2019. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com.
Featured photo courtesy of Kimberly Sickel, @riverdeer on 500px
Episodes

Halloween Goulash

themuglytruth

We LOVE coffee
Kris loves coffee so much. Kym does too, but she also loves her dignity. Photo by Kimberly Sickel, @riverdeer, at 500px

For all that is holy, please pretend this is goulash.
Basically an exact copy of Kris’ mantle.
Dressing up in costumes goes back as far as 2,000 years, starting with the Irish Celts and Samhain.
Sad floofy spider asks “Why you so scurred of me?”

Some might ask, “why GOULASH? Are you (((sure))) you have the right word? Is today’s podcast all about Halloween recipes? This makes no sense. We are all confused.”

To that we say, “We don’t know but it’s too late to change things NOW, we’re tired because it’s vurrry late and we procrastinated getting this thing written until two hours before it’s due and we are always confused, SO GET A GRIP.”

How very collegiate of us.

Let’s fill up a lot of space with other people’s words, shall we? Here’s what the free online dictionary has to say about it:

goulash  (ˈɡuːlæʃ) (n)

Definition 1: A rich stew, originating in Hungary, made of beef, lamb, or veal, highly seasoned with paprika. Includes macaroni, onions, tomatoes.

Nope. We aren’t dedicating today’s podcast to a bowl of spicy meat.

Definition 2: A method of dealing, in the game of Bridge, in threes and fours without first shuffling the cards, to produce FREAK HANDS!

VERY CLOSE. Verrrrrrrrrry close. All this talk of “freak hands”, and the wanton dealing of cards with reckless abandon. Hmmm. Yes. It’s all very…ah…close.

Definition 3 – Hodgepodge; jumble.

Winner winner chicken dinner get that dog a bone!

Jumble. HODGEPODGE! (wot an amazing word, eh?) THAT’s why we chose “Halloween Goulash.” We knew deep down we were on the right track. Plus, it’s so much creepier sounding than Halloween Potpourri. We’re so glad it worked out. We are very lucky people.

Right. So today’s episode starts off super great. We are in Big Bear, still sitting on Kym’s mom’s deck, we’re enjoying the flora and fauna, we’re staying the course. We have our topics! We have our notes! We talk about the history of Halloween and Samhain and how the Irish totally invented the First Holiday of the HallowThanksMas Trifecta…

We ramble on about Halloween traditions and candy corn and our favorite movies to watch in October (Harry Potter anything, Hocus Pocus, Rocky Horror Picture Show, High Spirits, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah) and how much Netflix and other streaming video folks have a totally sucky holiday lineup this year…it’s all GREAT…things are BRILLIANT…we sound fairly EDUCATED (snirk)…

And then dangling, creeping, unfolding shit hits the fan.

Now. Let’s pause a moment.

***Clasping hands, closing eyes, nodding ever-so-sightly.***

We won’t tell you exactly HOW it hit, but once it flies things kind of go downhill. Oh, we try to bring it back ’round, try to push through – but in the end, let’s face it, we forgot a whole entire SEGMENT of the episode outline because of SAID SHIT.

That’s ok. There’s still quite a bit of (ahem) meat and potatoes (HAHAHHAHA!!! see what we did there???) (Editors note from Kris: There’s no potatoes in goulash.) (Author’s note: fuck off no one cares.)

((Does anyone actually believe there are two people writing this blog? No? Okeydokey.))

…there’s still quite a bit of substance to the rest of the episode, it just tends to be on the jumbly side of the definition of goulash, not so much the stewy side. A wee bit of the “freak hand” essence is revealed with a slight bouquet of chaos and subtle hint of insanity, paired with well-aged f-bombs.

Now lookey here. We’ve managed to write an entire blog about absolutely nothing, so you’d probably be better off getting on over to HALLOWEEN GOULASH on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Libsyn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2018 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2018. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com
Location photo by Kimberly Sickel, @riverdeer at 500px

 

Episodes

Cabana Spiders

themuglytruth

Kris and Kym on the stairs in Old Orange
Kris and Kym make sure the stairs are safe behind some cool building in Old Orange, CA

 

Kym inside the original Fairhaven Mausoleum
Kym and Kris in front of the original mausoleum in Fairhaven Cemetery, Santa Ana, CA
Kym and Kris visit one of the mausoleums in Fairhaven Cemetery, Santa Ana, CA
Kym and Kris find this grouping quite…ironic. It’s a SIGN!

Kym and Kris take it outside. There’s bird tweeting, dogs barking, spiders LURKING! **SHUDDER** But we push through our fears and deliver the podcast like the caffeinated, mouthy chat-warriors we are. And we talk about everything under the sun: cancer, cemeteries, Big Bear, Aurora Borealis, noisy airplanes, noisier helicopters, Orange Ghost Walk, worst Christmas gifts…we said everything, we mean EVERYTHING. Today’s episode is a poignant catch-up for these two life-long besties.

To hear our CABANA SPIDERS episode, go to iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Libsyn, Pocket Casts, and Stitcher or any podcast player you prefer and then subscribe, download and listen! If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review! The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

UPDATE: Kym’s procedure went smashingly and everything came out ok. Literally. She’s fine, looking forward to her PSL, and sends EVERYONE her love. Which is awesome, because…WE…LOVE…HER!! The only thing we’re kind of bummed about is she’s not opting for the big pain meds. So much for Kris’ evil plan of making a viral video of Kym whacked out on meds.

Next time, Gadget….NEXT TIME.

(JK, there will be NO NEXT TIME! This was it, no more!!! Healthy us forEVAH!!)

© The Mugly Truth 2018 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2018. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com
Location photo by Kimberly Sickel, @riverdeer at 500px

 

Episodes

Episode 03: Disturbia

themuglytruth

 

A smattering of the MANY phobias found on phobialist.com
Online Telegraph article about cruise ships and pirates
Photo of a photo….of a certain group of people who are friends of a certain clown mentioned in our podcast
The new scissor boom setup, ready to record episode 03!

 

Happy Tuesday!

In today’s episode we talk about the weird and not-so-weird phobias we’ve had since childhood. In the process we discover many, MANY, more phobias out there and how NOT to pronounce any of them correctly. So if you’re afraid of cats, clowns, ducks, spiders, balloons, women, commitment, enclosed spaces, relationships, the ocean, drowning, teenagers, traffic, the sun and so many others, then this may (or may not) be the episode Just. For. YOU!

And rest assured, we are not making fun of ANYONE who has any debilitating fear of anything. As you will hear, we can get pretty triggered ourselves, but somehow we find the ability to laugh through it.

For a complete list of phobias, go to http://www.phobialist.com. You’ll get to see just how freaking hard it is to not only spell but pronounce some of these names correctly. Tsk. Seriously, it isn’t easy! And, oh, by the way, I also just learned that phobias are based on GREEK words with a smattering of Latin here and there. Also, dear McDonald’s please don’t sue us, we are very, very broke. And to the Telegraph, thank you for publishing an online article to verify Kym’s fear of cruise ship pirates is oh so valid (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/articles/what-happens-if-a-cruise-ship-is-attacked-by-pirates/).

Ok, dear mug-clutching friends, go ahead…get your comforting cuppa, sit back and just know there’s nothing to fear…the Libsyn link below will safely take you to Episode 03 DISTURBIA!!

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© The Mugly Truth 2018 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2018. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com