I am so glad it's Friday!

I'm exhausted and so is everybody else. The rent house has a lot to do with that. But we are just about done. We are going to hit it hot & heavy on Sunday and we might have to go back Monday for a coat of paint on the wood outside the windows, but it will be quick. The ad comes out in the paper this weekend.

Yesterday, we made the time to mow at home. We managed to get the back yard done. It had not been mowed in about 3 weeks or maybe closer to 4. First Bill was working at the rent house, then he had his injury and since then we've been at the rent house. The grass was getting so tall we were afraid Maggie Beagle would get lost!!!!!! He mowed the front today, it's not nearly as big nor was the grass as high because of the trees.

Otter and I went to thrift stores after work today. We had a great time. Shopping is always fun! We also went to Michael's, she bought several art items. She shows every sign of having inherited the artistic ability from Nana, and we encourage her. She sold a bunch of her dvd's on eBay, so she could get the brush pens, good quality sketch book, and several other things I forgot.

I know it's still technically summer, but as far as I'm concerned it's over today. It's been a difficult summer. It really started with my surgery. There have been some good things, too. Not all bad. Just seems like we've had a lot more to deal with this year than we normally have. It seems like that happens about every 3 or 4 years. This summer's list:

My illness & surgery (bad but could have been much worse!).
Rent house being vacant (bad, 2 mortgages and the expense we've had to fix everything) (good, we were able to do most of the work ourselves).
Bill's injury (bad, but I've decided that there is a silver lining - he was unable to get out and do the big things he had planned when we had the heat wave so maybe he avoided a heat stroke!).
Froggy's visit! (Very Good, but bad because it was too short!).
Otter's trip to Texas (good).
Otter went to camp (good).
We had a July 4th visit from Bill's sister & brother and their families (Good!).
Bill did NOT start any fires with his fireworks this year! (Good, and surprising).
We had to install an electric fence (Frasier!). Could be bad or good.
All the rain we had early in the summer. (Bad, we were never able to get the pool up). (Bad, millions and millions of bugs!). (Good, millions of frogs to eat the bugs). (Good, things are still blooming that should already be through by this time).
Paid off the car. (Very Good!) (But bad because now I have new car fever!)

If I think of any more, I'll add them on or mention them in my next post.

Ok, Now it really is Wednesday!

Bill went to the rent house tonight, I didn't go this time. We'll all go on Sunday. And we will get everything done. The ad comes out this weekend, there's not that much done but it's still going to take most of the day because it's bigger stuff. I'm going to take pictures of the interior, the floors look so good! Also the french doors in the master bedroom and the new carpet will be in by then. The carpet guy will be there on Saturday. We were joking that we should just move back in there, since it's got new floors. Not seriously, although I do wish that we'd had the floors done when we did still live there.

I'd like to say hello to someone. Hi Trina! Hang in there. It's not a crime to speak your opinions, in fact we all should be able to do so without fear. :) We don't all have to have the same opinion, the world would be pretty boring if we did.

I bought new dog toys today. Two new nylabones, which Frasier & Maggie love. They go through them pretty quickly. I also bought a different style chew toy that I was told was going to last a long time. Yeah, right! It was a hard rubber bone shaped piece covered with tennis ball covering. Lasted less than 3 minutes, then I had to pick up pieces and throw them away. Frasier strikes again! Maggie's latest accomplishment is that she has abandoned Otter's bed (probably temporary) for the pile of stuffed animals that come off the bed and land in the floor every night. Guess her little tushy is too delicate for the floor! She reminds me of the scene in the movie ET where he's hiding with all the toys. She hasn't danced for me in a few days, but now she sits up on her behind and waves her paws at me when she wants to get attention. I haven't seen her do that to Otter but if it works with one of us, she will repeat it. She's funny, that's for sure.

Middle of the week!

Well, close enough. It's actually Tuesday but I'm not counting!

We bought the carpet & pad for the rent house tonight. It's going to be installed Saturday. Sunday will find us back over there, but we WILL get everything done then. Bill has been doing a bunch of little things the last couple of days after work and will probably continue the rest of the week.

On Sunday, anything that has not been done will be. Along with mowing, there are a couple of windows that need the wood around them to be repainted, Bill will put the last coat of paint on the porch and re-install the railings. The kitchen and bathroom floors need to be mopped, and the tub & kitchen sink need to be scrubbed. Then I think we might be done! I hope so, since the ad comes out this Saturday. I refuse to go to the rent house on Labor Day. So we will be finished on Sunday.

However, I will be glad when this summer is over. It's not been all bad, but it's been a hard one. Not the hardest, but close. Although there have been a lot of good things happen, it has just been a difficult few months.

We're Floored!

Or at least the rent house is. The floors look wonderful! Wish we'd had them restored when we still lived there. Of course, we would have probably had to rent a storage for a week and put literally everything we owned in it! :) The floors are outstanding, I knew that the floor guy did good work but even then, I was surprised at how great they turned out. We put quarter-round wood trim in all the rooms that had hardwood floors, since the previous trim pieces were slightly higher than the floor now as they were installed with carpet. That took quite a bit of time today, since Bill had to measure and cut each piece individually. He stained them Friday and then last night we went back over there after sundown, and put on clear coat so that they would have time to dry for today's installation. We also did most of the cleaning, not the floors yet but everything else. The floors that still need cleaning are the kitchen & bathroom. Bill still has to install the mini blinds & vertical blind - he forgot his drill so they will wait a day or so. And the front porch isn't quite finished, it needs another coat of paint and the railing to be put back up. We still need to carpet the master bedroom but that is about it for the big things. We are very close to being ready to rent it again.

Otter will be getting her own blog in the near future, I'm not sure if I will post a link here or if she'll just email the address to everyone. Sometime in the next few days, most likely.

There was something else I wanted to say, but I forgot! Blame it on being tired. If I think of it later, I'll edit and add it on. But don't hold your breath!

Thursday, Bill Update

The stitches are gone! Bill saw the doctor this afternoon. She took the stitches out, there were only 4 and not 8 like I thought. But now there are none, so he's in a much better mood. He is still on light duty tomorrow, but Monday it's back to his regular job and hours. Light duty is at a different place than he usually works and the hours are later. But she did tell him that he can not mow the lawn yet. So I guess I still get to do that. Darn!

When all was said and done concerning the rent house & our tenant, even though he did clean before he left we still wound up deducting over $450.00 from his $750.00 deposit. Mostly because he was smoking inside, which was strictly forbidden by the lease, and the result was that both living room curtains have been tossed & replaced with mini blinds for one window and vertical blinds for the other, and the bathroom and both bedroom walls had to be treated and then painted - with several coats - to get the smell out. There were a few other issues, but those were the biggies. He might be upset when he gets the check, but I don't really care. He had the opportunity to be there for a walk-through but he chose not to be and he also did not return the keys. If he just hadn't smoked inside, he would have gotten most of the deposit back.

Otter joined the History Club at school. The first meeting was today, she really enjoyed it. A possible field trip is to a Civil War battle site that is just over the border into Arkansas. I think she said it's called Pease Field but I'm not sure if that's right or not. That will be in the spring, if it happens. It's also one I'll be going on. The other option if that doesn't work out is Oklahoma City, to the Cowboy Museum and the OKC Bombing Memorial. Also one I'll go on. They have plans to have a veteran's panel sometime in November, and parents will be invited to that as well. And they do a whole bunch of other stuff. I think she's going to have a good time and learn a lot, since she's her parent's daughter she loves History! Which is a good thing, because I would think it would be really boring to be the daughter of two big-time history buffs and not be one herself! But she is one, so no worries there at least.

I filled up two of my hummingbird feeders yesterday, they were bone dry and the birds were not happy! Now they have all 4 feeders filled so they have plenty to argue over. Although that doesn't stop them from occasionally strafing us! We have about 5 or 6 hummers. And they are mean little birdies! But I still love to watch them. I might add a few more feeders to my collection next year, and put them in different places around the yard - in addition to the ones I have already.

Tuesday Tails

Yes, I said "tails" and not "tales". It's been a Maggie afternoon, since we got home all the dog wants to do is dance! Took us forever to teach her, now that she's learned a new trick she thinks she should show it off every second. So I've spent a lot of time holding the dog's front paws while she dances. She really is cute, and would give the Energizer Bunny a run for the money.

This won't mean much to anyone besides Otter and me, but the Fenton Glass Company is closing their doors. They have been in business over 100 years and are the premier art glass company. No one else even comes close to the perfection & artistry in the glass items they produce. But thanks to the "walmart syndrome" of things being cheap (and cheaply made as well), they can not compete and they are shutting down. It's not just WalMart-type operations, they state the main reason is things like cheap China imports. Well, when it comes to art glass - YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! There is a local dealer that I frequent, it's a small shop and is the owner's dream of a lifetime. I was in there today and she said that she's heartbroken, she is ordering everything she can from the company and hopes to make it until April when her lease is up. She is going to see about becoming a dealer for a couple of other glass houses, but Fenton is her passion and she says it just won't be the same for her. I hope she is sucessful. While I was there, I bought the piece I'd been lusting after for weeks - it's a green Christmas tree with opalescent "glitter" on the ends of the boughs and it is just lovely. It has joined my other Fenton pieces in the china cabinet, and is also accompanied by Otter's Fenton pieces. I told Otter I'd get her one more really good piece, that even though she will get it early it will be part of her Christmas. She's thinking, but I think she's narrowed it down to one of three pieces: a midnight black pony with moon & stars painted on the side; another butterfly (topaz glass, she already has a vaseline glass one); or a kitty painted for Halloween as a vampire (is she her mother's daughter, or what?!). http://www.fentonartglass.com/ is the website for the Fenton company.

Funny story, while I was buying my Fenton tree there was a 20-something year old guy that came in. He immediately picked up a pretty good size pink & white glass basket and said his girlfriend wanted it, so he had to buy it for her. He was very earnest. The owner & I looked at each other, smiled and said to the boy at the same time "Good boy!".

Bill checked on the floor today at the rent house, he said it looks very good. I'm not sure when it will be finished, but not too many days from now. Wish we'd had it done when we lived there! I'll be glad when we are finished, and don't have to go over there every day. Or even every other day like lately.

Monday already? Where'd the weekend go?

It was here a minute ago. I wasn't ready for the week to start and it to be Monday already.

We had rain yesterday, courtesy of TS Erin, so we didn't get the outside stuff done at the rent house. Not that I'm complaining, I really wasn't in the mood to climb a ladder and paint window frames! We literally crawled around on the floors (my knees still hurt!), looking for stray carpet nails. We found a few that we missed so we pulled them. We found a few that we missed that would not come out for anything, so we left them. Bill finished painting the kitchen, changed out the rest of the inner door knobs that needed it, pulled the linoleum tiles up from the hallway floor and we did a few misc. things that I can't remember. Only two trips to Lowe's this time, usually we make about 4 per day. We brought all the cleaning stuff & tools home, the big stuff like the vertical blinds are in the garage at the rent house. The floor guy started today, Bill checked on him at lunch and he said that the plywood spot is going to match so perfectly that we won't be able to tell where it was. The plan for now is that we'll be back over there next Sunday so I can do the actual cleaning. Bill is going to go over there after work during the week to check the floor progress, and since we can get into the master bedroom without getting in the way he might go ahead and get the curtains installed on the french doors. We still have to get the carpet for the master bedroom, but that will wait until after the floors are finished. And somewhere in here, I have to find the time to mow the yard at home!

There was bad weather in Oklahoma yesterday, still from TS Erin. It was well south and southeast of us, but there was flooding & several people drowned. Oklahoma had already been warned that there would be a lot of rain, but I don't think anyone expected it to be quite as bad as it was in a couple of areas. Really bad, like the bad stuff we get in the Spring.

Maggie now dances whenever I ask her to. She did it three times when I got home, she's so cute! Frasier was more interested in his chewbone, but he does come in here when I'm typing and try to put his head on the keyboard. Silly dog, he thinks all my attention should be on him! They are very spoiled, that goes without saying. But that is how it is supposed to be!

The low tire I had turned out to be a nail in it. I got it fixed when I got my oil changed today, and I also got the front blinker bulb replaced since it quit as well.

Interesting article: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA082007.01B.counting_bats.337300a.html
Bats are our friends! We haven't seen anymore since the one a week or so ago. I can't tell if our bat house has residents or not, it's too high up to see into clearly. But it could well have occupants. Hope so!

The latest Bill Adventure installment! And Happy Birthday Toadles!

Bill saw the doctor today, for the follow up. He was hoping she would take the stitches out. Which did not happen. She wants him to stay on light duty until the 24th (next Friday), and hopefully he can go back to regular duty on the 27th (Monday). He sees her again next Thursday. Until then, he still has the same restrictions. The problem is because of where on his ankle the laceration/stitches are. It is healing, but it's a slow area to heal completely. She's concerned that if she takes the stitches out too soon, it will re-open and if that happens it won't be something that can be re-stitched which would cause a whole lot of other problems.

We didn't get much done at the rent house yesterday. Well, I did. I pulled up the rest of the carpet tack in Otter's old room and the office, and part of the dining room. Bill was going to paint the kitchen, and he had started on it when I left.

But one of my tires was low, and I had a problem getting air into it when I stopped at the convenience store. So I called him and he came to help me, it turned out that the air compressor itself was bad so we went to a different place and their was bad, too! We got enough air into it so I could get home, then Bill filled up his portable air tank with his compressor and filled the tire the rest of the way. It apparently has a slow leak. We're going to keep an eye on it, then Monday when I take the car in for an oil change I'll ask them to find the leak and fix it. The tires are only about a year old, if that.

Toadly Frog is another year older! (Also known as my brother Todd). Today is his birthday. So, Happy Birthday Brudder! Otter sang you the last verses of the birthday song - the part about looking like a monkey and living in the zoo. Just remember - you will always be older than me! And since you are also older than Froggy, you are ancient! You are certainly living up to your other nickname - Old Man of the Mountain! Oops, I mean Mountain Man. But I like my version better. :)

We are finally below 100 degrees. We saw San Antonio on the news this morning, I remember those rains that cause flooding and some of the low spots are really bad judging from the pictures we got from Robin's email. Hope everyone is ok. We might get a little rain out of the same system, we have a chance but I think it's pretty slim. Except for Sunday, which is the one day we don't want rain because we have outside projects at the rent house. But I won't complain much if it rains, I'm not looking forward to getting up on the ladder and painting window frames!

And I've lost another 5 pounds! I weighed when Bill was at the doctor. He's lost at least 30 pounds himself, I am now at 35 pounds down! I have lost 5 pounds since the last time I weighed which was at the end of June. Happy Happy!

Tuesday. Very HOT today.

Froggy, if you have a suggestion for a better title, please feel free to let me know!

Bill went back to work yesterday. He turned in his light work excuse and then he realized that it said he was to go back to FULL DUTY WITH NO RESTRICTIONS today. Which is not what the doctor told him! So I called the hospital last night, they told me to call back this morning. So I called them first thing today and they faxed me a new excuse with the correct information on it. The day we were there, it took 3 tries for the clerk to get the dates right on the excuse - she kept trying to say it was for July and not August, and we didn't check beyond the dates when she finally brought it to us. I wish we had, because Bill's boss immediately insisted that he had to do his regular job today and Bill has been on his feet all day long. He's taking the correct excuses in tomorrow, and he expects his boss to be unhappy. Tough! He is on restricted duty until the 21st. He is supposed to use the crutches, but he actually does better without them.

We have been going to the rent house after work yesterday and today, and pulling carpet nails. They are actually staples, just very long and difficult to get up. We're nearly finished with that part of the job. Since the work starts on Monday, we have to get them all up as soon as possible. There are some that we simply can not get up, but we will have gotten most of them removed. Then there are still a few things, but they will wait until after the floor refinishing is done. Things like hanging a mini blind, hanging the vertical blinds, curtains on the french doors and carpeting the master bedroom. Then it's just cleaning! Our agent will start the ads running in the paper the weekend of the 25th. So keep your fingers crossed that she gets it rented fast! It's not fun having to make two mortgage payments.

Tomorrow is another Ozone Alert Day. Third one in a row. We've exceeded allowable standards the last two days, I'm not sure how many more chances we have before we go on the EPA's dirty air list. When that happens, gasoline will probably go up because we'll have to have a special additive. I'm not sure what the other consequences are. One of the things is not to mow on those days, that one is no problem. We don't fill up the cars on Ozone Days unless we absolutely have to. Carpooling is not an option for us, nor is riding the bus. And forget not using the a/c in the car! We have a medical reason for having to use it (asthma), so I don't feel guilty about that one.

Three frogs in the dog's outside water dish yesterday. I brought the dish in to scrub it. But first, I had to convince three small hoppers that they really did want to move. This morning, there were three more but they were big, fat frogs. I just added more water to the dish, they moved but they didn't have to. Frasier was drinking water around them, which surprised me as I thought that surely he would eat them! Maybe he's had an encounter with one in the past and knows that they are not really eatable. I'm surprised we still have as many as we do, as hot and dry as it's been. They seem to haunt the dog's water dish. I have a small frog house by the dish, but I don't know if they use it or not. We have bricks in the water dish so that the frogs can get out when they want to and not drown.

Sunday and I'm melting! Melting!

Ok, so I stole that line from the Wicked Witch of the West (no comments please!) But it kind of fits. We went to the rent house early this morning, I think we were there just after 8:00. I mowed as soon as we got there, it was getting warm by the time I got finished and I felt like I really was melting. Otter kept me well supplied with water, she takes pretty good care of me. Bill got the first coat of porch paint done and then we did a few things inside. We pulled a few carpet nails/staples, and that is a LOT harder than it sounds. They are not made to be accidentally removed, they are in to stay. Otter wiped down the living room, dining room and hallway walls. She helped me tape off the few spots in the kitchen that need to be painted. We went to Wallyworld for a new mini-blind. Otter washed a few of the windows. When she and I left, Bill was painting the kitchen and was going to put the second coat (light blue) on the porch. We brought home several cans of half-used paint. I'm going back there after work tomorrow and pull a few more nails. The carpet guy is going to start on Monday the 20th, so we have to get the nails up by then. I left the cleaning supplies over there, I decided to wait on cleaning the kitchen until we're finished (except for the floors).

Bill's ankle is doing much better. I've been changing the dressings daily and it does not look like any infection. It looks like it's healing up well. He goes to the doctor on Friday for the follow-up.

Th-th-that's all, ffffolks!

When will it be winter?

It's been warm here lately. Very warm. NE Oklahoma doesn't have nearly as much hot weather as S. TEXAS, but it does get it's share. It doesn't last more than a few days to a couple of weeks, but to hear these people up here gripe... That being said, I still don't like extremely hot weather! We've spent most of the day inside the house with the a/c going. We did manage to sit out on the back deck this morning for a while. We would have stayed out longer, but the little bit of wind we got was blowing over the cow pasture before it got to us and we could tell! Stinky!

We are going to get the hardwood floors in the rent house redone, we finally made the decision. The guy will start on the 13th, and now that I've seen some of his work I have to admit that we are getting a very good price. The kitchen, bathroom and master bedroom will not be done. The kitchen and bathroom are linoleum tiles and the master bedroom will have to be carpeted because it is an add-on and never had wood flooring, just a cement slab. After the wood floors are done, then we will see about the master bedroom floor. We are going over there tomorrow, very early, and get the last few things done. I get to do the lawn mowing this time, which I am going to do as early as possible because of the heat. I told Bill that I think he must have arranged his accident just so he could get out of mowing! But there really isn't too much else to do. Bill will paint the front porch with the specific non-slip paint and he'll put the porch railings back on. Otter get to start the inside cleaning, but it's mainly just wiping the counters down and things like that. We are not going to mop the bathroom & kitchen floors yet, that will also be after the hardwood floors are done. We are going to wait on repainting the garage. It's too hot right now to do it, and Bill's not really able to be on his feet for that long anyway. If we were going to sell the rent house now, then we would probably arrange for it to be done, but it can be rented out with the plan to repaint it in the near future. We'd like to be able to get the "For Rent" sign out by the first of September, and it looks like we will.

I rescued a baby mockingbird this morning. I saw a parent bird fly from a tree in the neighbor's yard and I could hear what sounded like a baby bird peeping. Then we saw the baby follow the parent, the baby managed to get to the branch of our tree. But it couldn't quite get it's footing and it somewhat gracefully sailed straight down to the grass. Frasier saw it at the same time I did, I told him No and he stopped, then when I was trying to pick the baby up so he wouldn't get it, the baby flew a couple of feet and landed at the bottom of the fence. Bill had to tell Frasier to stay, and I was able to get the baby bird then. And Mom/Dad was right there, dive bombing me! I held baby up so whichever parent it was could see that I wasn't hurting it, then it flew out of my hand and landed several feet away in the field behind the house. The adult bird saw where it landed and went down there, so I think that the baby was going to be ok. I really prefer to just leave them alone and watch, flying lessons are fun to observe, but Frasier would have eaten it if he could.

And the hoard of hummers has arrived! There were about 7 of them out there today. I filled two feeders yesterday and the other two are probably going to need it tomorrow or Monday. The feeder in the kitchen window has finally been found, there is a male ruby throat that claims that feeder. We think that this is the beginning of their southern migration. As early as it is, that could mean a hard winter is coming. Think we'll stock up on firewood soon! Just in case.

Thursday and First Day of High School

She survived her first day! Otter said that the school is huge and that there are a lot more kids than she thought. She's been to the school a couple of times and had a map, but it looks different with all those kids. She has Debate as one of her electives, Debate is held at the actual "high school" (11th & 12th grade) and the class is bussed over there then bussed back. She had the supply lists when she came home, we had a lot of the basic supplies but the teacher-specific lists didn't come out until today. So we went to Wallyworld, along with everybody else and their mother, and the trip exhausted both of us!

Bill is better. I took him to the rent house this morning, he spent most of the day sitting in a chair and pulling carpet nails up. He was only there for a few hours and he managed to get himself home, he actually was able to drive without much difficulty. He's still in pain, but not nearly as much as it was. He's also not quite as grouchy!

We just picked up a power washer, the front porch is going to get a good washing. He pulled up the indoor/outdoor carpet the other day and the glue needs to be power washed or it won't come off. Then the front porch will be painted with a special concrete paint that has a slight amount of grit in it so it won't be slick. But we are nearly through, hopefully we can get it all finished up and the floors done by the end of August so we can get it rented again.

We had a bat on the front porch last night! It was hanging in a corner area, near the top of the porch wall. I guess it thought that was a good spot to roost, it must have been there all day. It left when it got dark. Were hoping that it comes back and brings a few friends, we've had so many mosquitos. We have a bat house but they haven't found it yet. It can take a few years for a bat house to get bats. We had it in what we thought was a good spot, but it turned out to be in full sun so we moved a year or so ago. Eventually, it will probably have tenants.

I think it's Wednesday!

But I'm not really sure about anything today. It's a result of little sleep last night. I moved to the couch to sleep, I was afraid of bumping Bill's ankle. But I slept with one ear open, in case he needed help in the night. And since I was on the couch, Frasier could reach me easily so he visited me several times. I was awakened by a furry face with a cold nose on mine a lot! And Frasier also snores.

Bill stayed home, but it was a battle to convince him. He's been in bed with his foot propped up most of the day. He's much better but it is nowhere near healed yet - that is going to take a while. I made an appointment with him for the follow up with my doctor on the 14th and she will decide then about the stitches.

Otter went to work with me today again, originally she was going to stay home. Since we didn't get to run our errand yesterday, she went with me today and then after work we went to the mall. She now has several more pairs of earrings in her collection, she bought a cd and a book she wanted. School starts tomorrow, she's ready but not ready if you know what I mean!

After she gets on the bus in the morning, I am going to take Bill to the rent house. Bill is going to sit in the floor and see how many carpet nails he can pull up. I think I can trust him tomorrow to not do certain things, unlike today! :)

There really isn't much else to do to get it rent-ready. The majority of the big stuff has already been done, it will take a while for the floor to be done but we think it's worth the wait.

It's pretty hot here, we finally have our summer heat. It has been close to 100 the last couple of days and possibly over today. It should be over 100 the next several days and we have heat advisories. We are not going to be outside in the heat much anyway. The dogs don't seem to want to stay outside, either! They will be out tomorrow, but they have plenty of water as well as several shady spots (including a dog house that they ignore) and they will have access to the garage.

Adventures in Bill Land Part 23423403450

See Tuesday, October 17, 2006's entry for Part One of Adventures in Bill Land. With a few minor changes, today's will be the same thing!

Bill was at the rent house, about 1:45 he calls me and asks me to call his dad to come back to the rent house for "an emergency." Scary words. So I call his dad and then call Bill back, seems he was loading the trailer with carpet and the weld on the trailer stand picked that moment to break. When it broke, the tongue fell sideways. RIGHT INTO THE BACK OF HIS RIGHT ANKLE! His dad took him to the ER, Otter and I met them there. The doctor was concerned about a break, the x-ray doesn't show anything but he said to watch it for a few days because sometimes small breaks in that area don't show up at first but that it probably is not broken. He has at least 8 stitches, I kind of lost count. There are two gashes, one of them is very deep - I could see the achilles tendon, that's how deep it is. The tendon is ok, it just barely missed it. But Bill's out of commission for a few days. He is on crutches, and I specifically asked the doctor about what Bill could NOT do, just so there are no misunderstandings (also known as bullheadedness). He has pain pills, and as soon as the DiGiorno pizzas are out of the oven he's going to take a pill or two and then go to bed.

The rent house is nearly through, they got the french doors in this morning and most of the carpet & pad pulled up. The floor man came and gave us an estimate on refinishing the floors, we will probably go that route. The kitchen has a small area that needs to be painted and mostly it will just need cleaning. But it's going to wait a day or so.

Urgh.

We're shopped out!

But Otter is ready for school. We went to Sears today and found her 3 pairs of jeans as well as 3 blouses. She doesn't look like a little girl anymore, and her father is having a hard time dealing with that. I keep telling him that it's just beginning, that he should just relax but somehow I don't think he's going to!

Rent house update: The bathroom is completely finished, painted a nice light tan color and has new hardware fixtures. The closets in all 3 bedrooms have been painted, which we haven't done before but they really needed it. The master bedroom has paneling so it's pretty much done besides the carpet. The other two bedrooms have had a coat of Kilz put on them and when Otter & I left there a couple of hours ago Bill was about to start the color coat. It's white, so I don't know if color coat is the right title or not but you get the idea! We had planned on using some pale tan paint that we have on our walls at home, but Bill painted a test strip and it looked pink so we decided to just go with white. The walls in Otter's old room were pepto bismol pink at one point, and even through several coats of white the pink kept showing through. The Kilz took care of that, but after all the effort to get rid of the pink nobody wanted to paint that room a shade of pink again! The carpet will be pulled up possibly tomorrow, then we are going to have someone look at the floors. The house has hardwood floors, if they aren't in too bad a shape we will have them restored if it's a better price than carpet. Our leasing agent seems to think one of her contractors can do the wood floors for a better price than carpet. We'll see. The master bedroom will still have to be re-carpeted, since it's basically a cement slab floor and not hardwood.

Then I think Bill is going to take the light/ceiling fan out of Otter's old room and put it in the dining room since the one there is bad. We have a regular bedroom-type light fixture that came out of one room or the other at home and he's going to put it up in Otter's old room. We had originally planned to take the one out of our dining room and get a new one for home, but the one I have is not in the best shape either so eventually we'll just get a new one for us.

He's also going to borrow a power washer from our leasing agent, and use it on the garage since it really does need to be repainted as well. He fixed the problem on the garage door frame this morning or Friday afternoon. The front porch & steps have really old indoor/outdoor carpeting which is torn in spots so we are going to pull it up and he's going to power wash there as well. Then he's going to paint it with special paint that won't be slick if it gets wet. The carpeting is what we put down when we moved into the house, which was about 13 years ago and it has not worn well.

After all that, then I can actually do the rest of the cleaning. There are a lot of little things still to do, and most of the things Bill has to do that I've already mentioned are not extremely hard but it is still work.

3 days left of summer break for Otter, then school starts on Thursday!

Tax Free Shopping Weekend

We shopped. We dropped, too. Sore feet!

We went to Penney's first, they had a sale where one junior blouse was regular price and the second one was $1.00. Otter found two blouses there. We went to Wal Mart and found her several other basic things, she'd be embarassed if I mentioned them here so I won't. But you get the idea! We went to an Army surplus store to find Bill more wool socks, but they were out of the ones he likes. So we went to Goodwill and for once found NOTHING there. That never happens. Then we went to another WalMart and found me a pair of jeans that are 2 sizes smaller than the ones I bought in December. Happy Happy Joy Joy! But we never found jeans for Otter. The sales tax holiday goes through Sunday, so if we get finished early enough at the rent house we might possibly go back to Penney's since we never looked there for jeans as we knew we were going to Wallyworld. We did find her a pair of tennis shoes, and laces for another pair of shoes - the laces were also tax free which struck me as strange. But I'm not complaining!

My puppy Frasier keeps coming in to see what I'm doing. When he wants to be petted, he will push my hand away from the keyboard with his head. And he won't take no for an answer, so I have frequent stops as I type this. He's such an affectionate pooch. I'm very glad that we got him and that we have been able to keep him in the yard with the electric fence.

Just a few more days left of Summer break for Otter. She goes back to school next Thursday. Already! Seems like school just got out a few days ago. I think she's enjoyed her summer, she had two trips (camp and TEXAS), and two visits by relatives. June just flew by. And now July is gone. Fall is really not that far away, although we still have some warm weather in the near future. But it's time to start thinking about colder weather.

Well, Frasier wants my undivided attention now.

Chupacabras in South TEXAS?

There is a woman in South TEXAS that claims she has a chupa carcas. It's hairless & ugly. Also very dead and she froze the head. Apparently, iut was hit by a car and brought to her by the driver. Look it up on the San Antonio paper website, mysanantonio.com and follow thie links to the video.

Only problem is that a) the last time somebody said they had a dead chupacabra it was a coyote with severe mange and b) the vet that saw this one said it's a fox with mange. However, the lady is insisting that she's got a chupacabra and that she's going to have the head mounted and put it on her wall. Really gross, if you ask me. My opinion is that the original legend was probably because somebody saw a mangy coyote. But who knows, maybe I'm wrong and there really are chupas. And the Lock Ness Monster and Bigfoot might be reall too! (Don't think so!)

For the non-TEXAN readers, a chupacabra is a legendary animal known in English as the Goat Sucker. It is supposed to be a blood sucking animal (coyotes have been known to do this), about the size of a coyote, the shape of a coyote and it has similar habits to a coyote. Notice the coyote similarities here?

I forgot about something else that was in the goodie box from Shara. A cookbook from the White River Band Northern Cherokee Nation. It has some really yummy sounding recipes and I'm going to be trying some of them soon.

That reminds me. I promised Froggy the recipe for Monkey Bread. It's really good and very easy. Here goes:

2 cans biscuits, any variety (small biscuits work best)
1 1/2 cups melted butter (I use the low fat butter substitute)
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I use pecans or walnuts) This is optional, you can skip the nuts if you don't like them
White sugar and additional cinnamon to toss the biscuits in

Cut the biscuits into small pieces, at least 4 piece per biscuit. I usually cut mine up into about 6 pieces each. Toss the pieces in the white sugar/cinnamon mix until they are coated. Place biscuits in a greased pan (I use an olive oil based non-stick spray - it doesn't take much). Combine the melted butter, brown sugar and cinnanom - I melt the butter in a sauce pan and then add the sugar & cinnamon, then stir it over low to medium heat unti is mixed well and smoother. Then add the chopped nuts. Pour over the biscuit pieces. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes - the time may need to be adjusted up or down depending on your oven. The important thing is to get the biscuits baked because half-cooked biscuits are gross! The recipe can be doubled. For the regular recipe I use a square baking pan and if I double it, I use a 9 x 13 x 2 baking dish. The original recipe called for a bundt-style cake pan to bake it in and then inverting over a plate to serve. I suggest you just use a baking dish, otherwise you will have a big, sticky mess on your hands. And the floor! The brown sugar mixture makes a syrup and it is very good. However, if you use real butter forget about watching your fat intake. Even with the low-fat substitute, it's probably not the most healthy meal so we don't make it too often. It's been suggested to me that we top it with whipped cream, which would probably be delicious. But I haven't tried that.