Morning Headlines

What a nice headline to wake up to this morning, Saddam is dead! Guess he knows the TRUTH now!!! Someone I know mentioned their opinion: Saddam was greeted by someone who said "Welcome, my name is Adolph and I'll show you around. Watch out for hot spots."

Home at Last!

We left SA at about 4:50 this morning and got home at about 1:30. This is the shortest drive time we've ever had. We had a great Christmas and I really enjoyed my birthday, but it is still good to be home.

We got home to a couple of very excited dogs! Frasier hasn't tried to jump up on me in months, he immediately stood up and put his front paws on my shoulders - which made his head higher than mine! Maggie would not leave Otter's side for a long time, although she did eventually curl up in the middle of Otter's bed and go to sleep.

We unloaded the car and then went to Wallyworld for groceries. Which is always an adventure with Bill! But I'm glad we got it done today, because that is just one less thing that I'll have to do tomorrow. I did get one load of laundry done, but the rest of the unpacking will still be waiting on us in the morning. We could get cold and/or wet weather starting tomorrow evening, so Bill will get firewood inside in the morning.

I saw a report that Saddam is to be executed within 48 hours - ABOUT TIME!

Is it still Monday?

This has been the day I feel like I've been in the trenches! Work was kind of crazy, I have a bunch of little things to do so I can be off next week. Stuff that I would do next week I have to do today. None of it is major, it's just a lot of things. So I'm just a little on the frazzled side!!

We started wrapping gifts tonight, which is the one thing I absolutely can NOT stand about Christmas! I do not like to wrap, but it doesn't do itself. I will probably pack for the trip tomorrow evening, I am still not quite finished with laundry yet. Laundry isn't a job I mind, it just is time consuming. But until it's all finished I can't pack. The dryer doesn't seem to work right, so laundry takes a loooooooooooooooooong time to get finished. I think we need to get the vent cleaned out, it is put together strangely but we can't move it because it goes under the house through the foundation. The company that cleaned our chimney 2 years ago can do it, they have done it before we bought this house.

We looked at weather forecasts for the trip down, Friday should be good. We might have to be a little careful the first part of the trip because it will be just right at freezing Thursday evening. But it looks like the forecast is for partly cloudy pretty much the entire way. The car is ready, I took it in for an oil change last Friday and the fuel filters were due to be changed so I had that taken care of at the same time.

Otter has one more day of school, but Bill is off until January 8. He worked today but they had nothing for them to do so he took off at 11:00 and is off the rest of this week with vacation days, then next week is holidays and the week after is vacation days. And he still has over 100 hours of vacation left! Some people are very spoiled! However, he did get cookie dough mixed up this afternoon without making too much of a mess.

I'm Done!

With my Christmas shopping. After dealing with the crowd at Wallyworld today, I am in a somewhat Grinchy mood so I've decided to make dinner easy - pizza is on the way! Now all I have to do is wrap everything and get last minute stuff done to be ready for our trip.

The Otter was baptised today, with three of them now she's an old pro at it. But this one was necessary because it was immersion and we are now Baptist. I think I'll tell her that she has no more excuses left if she ever decides to be bad! She has to be good now! :)

Christmas is when? Can't tell by me!

I'm not ready for it to be Christmas yet. Because of the trip, I told Bill I didn't want to put up the treet, etc. He did ask me twice, and I told him no. Next time, somebody slap me! (No, not really).

It doesn't feel like Christmas because it doesn't look like Christmas. Although with the two poochies, it's probably easier to not have the tree up. Frasier just might try to take it out the doggie door, like he does with all the dog toys. I don't know why, he just doesn't want them in the house. He will take things away from the Magginator and take them out, she can play with them outside and he won't take them from her. He just doesn't like anything inside! Never heard of a Borg dog, but he certainly has some of the tendencies!

Bill made about 2 dozen cookies last night. I put them in the cookie jar after they were cooled down. They were still there this morning. Tonight, the cookie jar is empty. Any guesses were they went? Otter & I weren't home when they dissapeared, smart as Frasier is I don't think he's quite mastered the trick of getting into the cookie jar yet! Bill is claiming to "no nozzing" about where the cookies might have gone but I don't think I believe him!

Happy Doggies!! And other stuff

We had been discussing changing vets in the new year, but the Magginator didn't seem to feel well and was suddenly dragging her rear across the carpet. So I called a new vet that is less than 2 miles from home and they told me to bring her in today. We took Frasier with us, and the vet checked him over too. Maggie had to get her glands cleaned out, she was not happy about that! But she is back to her bouncy self now. Frasier was on the verge of another ear infection, so I'm back to treating him for a few days but other than that he was fine. Maggie weighs 27 pounds, Frasier is 62 pounds. When we got home from the vet, Otter got the shovel and filled in several holes that the dogs have made that were by the fence line. The rest of the yard looks like a moonscape, so the moles must be on the move again. Wish they'd move right on away!

This is our church's website: http://www.arrowheights.org/ The otter will be baptised this coming Sunday. Third time's the charm, right?!!? This one is necessary because the first two were sprinkling and the Baptist church only recognizes immersion. She was baptised as a baby which was the first one, then she went through Confirmation about 3 years ago in the Methodist church we belonged to at the time and she decided to be baptised then as "the one that counts" so she said that the next one is really just "for show" anyway. I told her that since she'll have 3 to her credit, she will have to be super good for the rest of her life! William will eventually get around to his own immersion baptism, he just isn't quite there yet.

December 7th Pearl Harbor Day 65 years

I just wondered if anyone realized what today is. I realized it when I was signing a check at the grocery store this morning, I asked Otter if she knew the significance of the day and before she could even answer me the clerk said something along the lines of "she won't care, it was before her time" and I was not amused! Otter knew, she knows her history.

Is it spring yet?

We're still a tad bit on the cold side - I think we actually made it above freezing for a brief time today. But it was just a tease, and now we are back below 32 degrees. But it's been sunny so that the snow has melted in some spots and the icy roads are greatly improved. The city finally got around to sending the plows out to the roads in our area. I went to a funeral yesterday morning and it took me 45 minutes to get about 12 miles. Then we ran an errand yesterday evening and the streets had been scraped sometime after my morning trip. Figures!

Bill's spent a lot of time today with his head in the toilet. No, not what you think! The high dollar toilet has a leaky valve and we have been to Lowe's FOUR TIMES today to try to get a part that works. Problem is that this particular toilet is apparently a very exclusive style and most places don't carry the parts it needs. Bill found one on eBay for $100.00 - the part, not the toilet. The guy at Lowe's suggested a couple of places in Tulsa that might have the part, because I really don't want to spend $100.00 on a leaky valve! Just for grins, when we were redoing the bathroom in January we priced that style toilet. They ain't cheap! Let's just say that several hundered dollars would be in the ballpark. Someone gave it to us when we were still in the old house, they were remodeling and didn't like the toilet because the flusher is on the left side so we took it off their hands.

BRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's cold! It rained quite a bit yesterday, then the temperature dropped below freezing at about sundown. It was 72 in the morning, then it was 42 about 3 hours later and it just kept going down. It didn't stop raining after it hit freezing, and the rain turned into sleet. It sleeted (is that a word?) all night and is still coming down. We have probably 2 more waves of frozen storm to hit and probably will get snow later on. The schools are closed and most businesses are too. Needless to say, we are not going anywhere! :) But I was prepared for an ice storm, so we are going to stay home and spend the day together. Otter and the dogs are curled up in front of the fireplace.

I got my birdfeeders up and filled yesterday, Frasier decided that he needed to help keep the yard clean so he hoovered any spilled seed he could find. The Magginator mostly reacted to the ice & cold by becoming like the Energizer Bunny on speed. Eventually she ran out of steam and came inside, only to park her little furry behind in front of the heater vent.

Bill mixed up some cookie dough and I have a loaf of bread in the bread machine. Gonna make chili later!

TGIF

I'm typing around a dog's nose, Fraiser thinks he has to help me. He is very stylish now, sporting his bright orange reflective collar!

Website recommendation: http://www.ncvc.org/src/Main.aspx Anyone who has a daughter or is female should check this out.

I hope we all survived Thanksgiving's pig out fest! We ate so much we could hardly move, but it was all wonderful and we had a great day.

Busy Sunday

Today started out with our final decision being made regarding church. We officially joined the S. Baptist church we've been attending since July. So I guess we are back where we started from, since I was originally S. Baptist! But that's not unusual for us.

Driving Lesson # 2 today, my turn to be the instructor. Otter did pretty good, she needs to work on turning and knowing when to start the turn but in general she did pretty good. Although I probably have a few more grey hairs just because! There was a lady jogging on the streets we were practicing on, I noticed that she stopped until we were well past and then she gave me a big grin - I got the feeling that she'd been there herself!

Maggie Beagle is not in disgrace anymore, but it's Frasier's turn. He managed to slip out of his collar Friday night, we discovered it on Saturday morning. I finally found his collar tonight. Or I should say I found what's left of it - it looks like they played tug of war with it! Fortunately, the part that was still intact was the part with his tags on it. I might see if I can find a bright, flourescent orange collar for him so the next time I have to look for it I can find it sooner. This isn't the first time we've had to search for it.

Taking an eBay break

We are done for the year with eBay, we put stuff up tonight and might post an overhead or two in the next week or so but we are through for the year. Possibly a little longer, who knows!

Also, I made beans and jalepeno cornbread tonight. Talk about delicious!

The cold weather we were supposed to get last night never quite made it. It was in the 40's last night and the high was the mid-40's, about 7:00 this morning! It's been rainy off and on, cold and very windy but not the bad cold & icy weather the forecasters guessed at. Fine with me, I'm not ready for ice. But I could do without the wind, it is playing havoc with my asthma and also the Otter's.

Ready for Spring

The tulips are planted! We bought quite a few bulbs this year, and the bed is bigger than the one we had before. If any of them get eaten by underground furries, we are going to have gopher stew! After all the work we just did, it would be infuriating if they don't come up because something ate them!

Maggie Beagle is in trouble. She got into the trash again. She has a knack for finding the tiniest things to eat, they are generally in the very bottom of the trash bag. So she has to take everything else out to get to what she is after. But she has no manners, she leaves the mess for someone else to clean up. That's Otter's job since she's Otter's dog. Bad doggie! She's actually a sweet little dog, and she likes to chase bugs. And eat them when she catches them. She is fun to watch, especially if she's stalking grasshoppers because she hops along after them.

Veteran's Day is Saturday

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a veteran.

THANKS DAD. I MISS YOU.

It's the end of the world as we know it

My teenager just had her first driving lesson! And she loved it. She said she only hit one curb, when she was turning the first time. Bill took her out behind our house, the field is being turned into a neighborhood and the streets are in but not much else. It was a perfect place because there were no other cars for her to run into! :)

Of course, they have to use my car for this!

The Keystone Cops sell firewood!

Or maybe it's just their relatives. Or maybe the delivery guys were channeling Laurel & Hardy! At any rate, we now have about a cord of wood stacked and just waiting for the weather to get cold enough! Bubba and Bubba Jr. finally got it stacked, but it took them a few tries to drive through the gate and get stuck before they finally realized that their truck was not going to fit no matter how many times they tried! Then they unloaded the wood with a tiny wheelbarrow that had been run over more than once, the last time by the man who delivered the portapotty to their lot. It was entertaining!

Otter went back to school today, she's still stuffy but she is much better. The wind today isn't helping her sniffles.

Cold Thursday

It was below freezing last night, so hopefully that means that all the ragweed and pollen is gone!

The parakeet died last night. We are down to one pet bird now, and he seems to be healthy. I think the other bird was old when we got him. He is now buried beside the pet mouse grave in the back yard.

Otter has a cold-type bug, she woke up with sore throat & congestions - and 101 degree fever. She's better now and her fever is down, but she's not well yet. But it seems to be confined to her head and not her chest, her asthma is under control and we hope it stays that way.

Happy Halloween!

The Otter just got home from trick or treating with her friend. She said she enjoyed her last time to go out, but her feet hurt and she was glad to be home. Took forever & lots of cold cream to get her vampire make up off! She got lots of chocolate, we will work out a deal where I buy it from her tomorrow. We have had several kids, but not the number we usually have so we will have left over candy as well.

One of the parakeets is sick, it is probably not going to make it. We don't know what is wrong with it, we are keeping a close eye on it and also on the other one.

It's in the 40's tonight!

Yard Work

Today we took down the 2 flower beds in the back yard. One was up next to the house and ran the entire length of the house, the other one was the old tulip bed and wasn't too big. We have a big problem with moles & gophers, since the dogs are always trying to dig them up I can't keep the pooches out of the flower beds. The last mole they got was caught in the flower bed in fact. So we decided to move the beds to the front yard, the tulip bed will be on the side of the garage. So we had to dig up all the wooden edges and then drag all the wood to the woodpile. It was old fence rail and was very heavy. I'm also going to extend my rock garden about a foot since it was bordering the flower bed next to the house. Otter has a small rock garden but I think she wants to combine hers with mine, since hers in in a corner by the fence and the wind always blows leaves into it. She has several concrete animals that I've painted for her, they are in her rock garden at the moment.

William's stitches were removed today. His finger is healing fine. While the nurse was removing the stitches, a man came in the door to get stitches in his finger from where he caught it on a saw blade! What is it with men and power tools? Genetics maybe? Or just clumsiness but they don't want to admit it!

Email addresses

We have had some problems with the new email, I think we've gotten all the bugs worked out but if you sent me an email and wanted an answer then you might want to resend it, if you sent it Tuesday through about Friday. I think we're now getting all emails sent to us but I know I missed a few in there!

Sock Monkeys

If you are bored one day, do a search on eBay for sock monkeys. They are very big sellers right now!

We are finally through with the internet/email/dish tv switch. I think we have all the bugs out of the email, but I'm not positive. We had a problem with the virus check program we had, it was stopping all emails going out and some of the incoming ones - but none of them had virus problems.

The Otter has had a sore throat since the choir concert Tuesday, it's still there so I don't think it's strained from singing anymore. Also some of the kids in choir have bronchitis apparently, so we are hoping that she's just got something mild. Because brochitis always means an asthma spell is on the horizon! Flu shots have been postponed now, although we only have about another week that they will be available so we might miss them this year. They didn't keep us from getting the flu last year anyway!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

New email address take effect today! We will email everyone with the changes, but if you attempt to email us at the old address we might still be able to get it but probably not past today.

Choir concert at school last night, I took a few pictures and will email them out. It was great!

School pictures came today, for once the Otter is smiling! She smiles all the time, except when the school photographer is there. But this year she smiled so we're happy. I'll send pictures out in the next few days.

Sunday Frustrations

Bill managed to saw the pieces he needed without dismembering himself! However, it was nerve wracking!

The dish was supposed to be installed today. The company called about rescheduling it because the installer hurt himself on the job right before ours. I'm wondering if Bill's contagious? He didn't get hurt today but somebody else did! The dish is rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Flu shots on Friday!

Cable & Internet Woes

We will be changing cable & internet providers in a few days. The cable has been out more than it's been working, and that makes it really hard with eBay! So when it went out again yesterday, after I called to get it fixed I called and arranged internet service with my phone company and they also offer satelite tv service so we ordered that too. The dish will be installed on Sunday, the internet will be sometime next week and I will email everyone with the new email addresses!

Otter is just happy we'll have the dish because we'll have the History Channel - what can I say, she's her parent's daughter!

Otter's Turn!

Thursday, Oct. 19th

Otter's turn: Ever hear about that old remedy for a sore throat? Its "Gargle warm salt water" That is absolutely a load of CRUD and I know it. Here's what happened: I had a bad sore throat a few years ago, and Dad said "Gargle warm salt water-it works!" So mom got a cup of hot water, and started dumping salt in it. She kept putting more in until the water was cloudy. I then tried to gargle it but there was one little problem. You know what happens when you eat a lot of salty foods? Your tongue goes numb. That's just about what happened. The hot water didn't help. All this did, was make me want to barf, and have an awful taste in my mouth for a few hours. I couldn't even gargle it, because when you gargle stuff, if you do it right, it goes to the back of your throat. If it tastes bad, the gag reflexs starts up. That's about what happened. So, In short, that's another thing that started out with good intentions, but has turned into rubbish.

Ottermom's disclaimer: Comments and opinions by the Otter do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management!

Oct. 18 Update!

Watch this space for Otter's comments. Otter is the nickname for the redheaded kid that runs around my house, she wants to make the occasional comment here.

I think I now have it set so that you can leave a comment without having to be a member or sign up. If it doesn't work, email me the old fashioned way! Oh, before I forget - we might be changing internet providers in the near future and that will mean new email addresses. I'll let everyone know if/when that happens.

In the meantime, I am nearly through with eBay! We're going to take a break from it for a while. Although Bill is going to an auction with Don on Friday, hopefully he won't buy a whole bunch of junk this time. The eBay break probably won't be permanent, although I'd kind of like it to be. Except for shopping!

Tuesday's adventures in Bill Land

Bill's latest accomplishment: trying to drill through his index finger! We just spent about 2 hours in the emergency room, he has 11 stitches in 3 layers. He was not a happy camper, especially when he had to get numbing shots in the two slashes in his finger. The thing is, we bought him a drill press so that the drill would be safe to use. Obviously, it wasn't! Pilot error probably had a lot to do with this. He goes back in 2 weeks or thereabouts to get the stitches out - I already told him that he is not allowed to remove his own stitches. I'm considering banning him from ever using power tools again! There is a reason I call him my other child.

Today's Ramblings

Warning! I am not politically correct! I have varied interests, so expect this to not be the same thing twice in a row. Or to be updated every day, I'll get around to it eventually.