August Book List

1. Puppy Chow is Better Than Prozac by Bruce Goldstein. Good book, interesting peek into extreme manic depressive problems and a true story. The author was in serious straits when he adopted a dog. Which saved him.

2. Tulsa Zoo's Penguins on Parade. Several years ago, the Tulsa zoo wanted to get penguins. Someone came up with an idea for a fund raiser. Other cities have done this, Chicago had cows - San Antonio had cows but with a unique Texan twist, I've heard of fishes and horses. Tulsa had penguins. They are huge, fiberglass penguins and people bought them and decorated them. They are still all over the city and are really fun.

3. Can't Wait to Get To Heaven by Fannie Flagg. Always a fun read, if it's by Fannie Flagg.

4. Zapped by Carol Higgins Clark. As usual for this author, it's fluff. But it was entertaining although a very fast read.

5. The Grass is Greener Over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck. Mrs. Bombeck was a treasure. Everything she ever wrote was funny and is still funny, even though she's been gone for years now.

6. The World According to Lucy by Charles Schults. Peanuts, Snoopy, what else can I say?

7. Hardy Succulents by Gwen Moore Kelaidis. Cactus!

8. It's Back to School, Charlie Brown. See # 6!

9. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthus Golden. This is a must-read, it's well written and a very well researched look into the life of a Geisha. It's not what you expect. There was a movie based on this, and I've only seen part of it but I think the movie changes some details. A very good book.

10. The Christmas Scrapbook by Phillip Gulley. I don't remember if it was in July's books or not, but there was a series I found about a Quaker minister. This is part of that series. It's cute.

11. No Place Like Home by Mary Higgens Clark. Not one of her better books.

12. Mosaics Inside & Out by Doreen Mastandra. One of the projects I'm considering is mosaics. I learned a lot from this book.

13. Losing It by Valerie Bertinelli. I've heard a few people say that they were surprised by this book, because she's not the squeeky clean girl people expected her to be, and that they were disappointed in her. But I think she wrote it more as a confessional than as bragging for her misdeeds. And her misdeeds were not quite as bad as a lot of other stars. She made mistakes, but she admits them.

14. Succulents by Gwen Moore Keladis. Slightly different book by the same author as # 7. Or possibly it's an earlier/later version of the same book.

15. How Could You Do That? by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I love this woman's attitude! She calls it like she sees it and she's always right on target.

16. Where Are You Now? Mary Higgins Clark, not quite as predictible as they usually are but still fluf!

17. Making Decorative Boxes. by Cheryl Owen. Another craft idea I was thinking about, but decided against. I will just buy the boxes myself and decorate them. I got a few good ideas out of this book.

18. Color, Create, Decorate by Shannon Quimby. Let's just say that some people need to learn that "less is more" and that clutter can be a very bad thing, especially when it's a way of decorating! Waste of time.

19. Escape by Carolyn Jessop. This book is heart breaking. It's a realistic, honest & very raw look inside the FLDS cult, which is a breakaway from the Mormon church (which I also consider a cult). If ever there was a group of people who needed intervention, this is it. There is a book that I read years ago, Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. It explains the Mormons, LDS (Latter Day Saints) from their very beginning, it shows step by step how the belief system was created and they are a cult in the truest sense of the word. Escape takes it one step further, it is about the FLDS (Fundamental LDS) off-shoot. I highly recommend this one.

Tomorrow is September, which means that I need to start another book list! I have already started one book but I'm only a few pages into it so it isn't on August's list.

Stroke of Genius!? (Warning: Political Content)

Smart move on McCain's part. Very smart. He's picked exactly what might win him the election: Female, younger than he is and Pro-Life. I'm sure that everyone has or will hear of his choice soon, but here's an article about it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25970882/ I guess we all know by now where I stand on certain issues. I'd love to see a woman get in there and it not be Hitlary!

Anyway, now that the political stuff is out of the way for the moment - on to other subjects. But there will probably be other political comments as the election gets closer. So don't say you weren't warned! :)

Otter is playing the asthma game today. It's mostly allergy related, but it still kept her at home today. It's my turn to stay home with her so I'm getting my laundry and housework done early. We had discussed leaving the pool up until Labor Day but now I'm glad that it's already down and put away. It hasn't really been warm enough for the water to be comfortable to swim and Otter isn't up to it anyway. And it's one less chore to worry about this weekend. We have plenty to do without it, we won't be bored because of inactivity! I did have one errand I had to run, since the mail theft last year I don't mail anything at all from home (or even from the office), so I had to go to the post office and drop off the envelopes with the bills I paid this morning. But that was a short run, and I made sure that Otter was doing ok before I left. Otherwise, I would have waited until Bill got home from work and then gone.

Otter is napping on the couch, so I'm in the back part of the house. I have laundry going but it's far enough from the living room that it won't disturb her. I don't want to be noisy, she needs to sleep. So I'm playing on the computer and might move to the bedroom to watch tv in there. I need to vacuum, but I can do that later on after she's awake. Both dogs seem to be copying Otter, they are also snoozing. But they do that frequently anyway so it's probably just coincidence!

I was going to post my August book list today, but there are still a couple of days left in the month and I have more reading to do. I just got another book at the library that I'd been waiting on, and I have several that I bought recently which I haven't gotten to. As well as one that I started a week or so ago and then put aside for other books. And I think I still have two other books from the library that I haven't gotten to yet.

Frasier just relocated. He came back here where I am, more or less fell in a heap in the floor and sighed. And was asleep almost as soon as he hit the floor. Maggie was asleep in the living room but she might have moved as well. But chances are that wherever she is, she's asleep!

FROGGY: GO TO THE DOCTOR. NOW!

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled blogging: Bill is retooling his car project yet again. He's building a hydrogen generator, supposedly they will help with gas mileage. He's had some improvement. But he's a typical engineer. In other words, he keeps taking it apart and rebuilding it. He's changed it each time. I've lost track of which incarnation the project is on now, but he's having fun with it. Seems like it would be something that wouldn't be fun, but he's certainly enjoying it. Our next door neighbor, Chris, also has built one (or two or three) and they spend a lot of time talking about the generators and working on them. Froggy's hubby would be included in the "male bonding" sessions (they remind me of little boys with new toys), but he lives several hundered miles away. But from what I understand from Froggy, he's rebuilt his more than once too. I guess it's just a guy thing? I know it's an engineer thing. Engineers just are not normal! Froggy's husband might not be an "official" engineer, but he is probably one by experience so he counts as one. Right, Froggy?

(Froggy, did you go to the doctor yet?)

I Thought Sneezy Was One of the Seven Dwarfs!

But apparently, we are all channeling him. August. Ragweed. Joy.

Can you tell I'm being heavily sarcastic? I hope so. Because I do NOT like ragweed season. But we're in the middle of it, so we'll have to deal with it until we get a good, hard freeze which will kill it all. Hurry winter!

Well, maybe. We still need to get the chimney swept, the fireplace looked at and possibly fixed, a load of firewood, my car will need a new battery soon, Otter and I both need new coats... The list goes on!

Anyway, are all all taking turns sneezing this afternoon. Otter is trying very hard to not play the asthma game, she's been having it off and on all week. I told her that she really needs to go to school tomorrow (Friday), since she missed Monday because of it. And I'm taking her and her best friend to the zoo on Monday, so she really REALLY wants to stay healthy. If she's having mild asthma or mild allergy symptoms, then the zoo will still work. So she's going to take it easy this weekend and stay inside as much as she can so that Monday at the zoo will be possible.

She's had a couple of driving lessons this week. I took her out on Tuesday, we went to the streets behind our house and she practiced turning right, braking and driving straight. She did great. She was nervous at first, but we talked about a few things and then she put the car in gear and off we went. And after she drove around the corner a few times, she did so well that I just told her to drive us home. Which isn't far, but she was a little nervous about possibly meeting a car coming her way. She did really well getting us home, although she was just a touch closer to Bill's van than she probably should have been. But for the first time she's ever put a car into a driveway, it was very good. Her lessons with the driving coach are the week after next, we are going to give her as much practice between now and then as we possibly can.

The doggies are back in our good graces. Although I wish we knew why Maggie is suddenly sleeping in our closet! Frasier has always wandered between his blanket in the living room and the floor at the foot of our bed. But Maggie has always been in Otter's bed, except for occasionally sleeping with big brother at the foot of our bed. But here lately, she's taken to sleeping underneath my shirts that are hanging on the low closet rod so she can get up under them. So now all my shirts have beagle hair on the right side! They are in a good mood this evening, we had Digiorno's pizza for dinner and they got some of the pizza crust.

I have a load of laundry in the dryer right now. And it's noisy. I just took a nickle out of the dryer, probably courtesy of Otter's jeans that are in there. But I think that there might have been another coin, I'm still hearing it!

We have an office cat at work. She might be a stray, or she might have a home and just be let out during the day. We don't know for sure. She is very healthy so we think that she might have a home. But then again, she has just about everybody on that street trained so she gets fed frequently. She shows up at regular times for meals, my 91 year old boss has fresh water out for her all the time, he made her a bed and even put a fluffy pillow in it for her. When it's hot, he has something he attaches to the bed so she'll have shade. She's very spoiled. She's a black & white tuxedo cat. This morning, I had quite a fright when I was turning onto the street I work on: there was a black & white tuxedo cat that had been run over and it looked just exactly like her. I even turned around and went back to check, and I really thought that it was "Miss Whiskers" as Otter calls her. So I went on to work, I looked outside where she usually is waiting just to be sure. No cat. So I decide I'd better call my boss and break the news to him, he is extremely attached to this cat and I really didn't want him to find out by seeing her in the street. So I tell him and he's upset. And as I'm talking to him, I see a black & white furry head pop up and look in the back window where she usually is waiting for her food. Apparently, there was another cat in the neighborhood that looked exactly like ours. Exactly. The younger boss even had to drive by and check, and he even thought it was our cat, too. Anyway, I was overjoyed to see that our cat was ok. I fed her immediately (she's got me trained, too!) and then she spent the majority of the day snoozing on the back porch. She will sometimes come in the back door of the office, she will walk around and meow, as she checks out each room. Then she'll mosey back out the door. Like she owns the place. Because of Otter's extreme cat allergy, I always scrub my hands as soon as I've fed her, or petted her or scratched her ears, or rubbed her belly (just like a dog, strange cat likes that), but one day she rubbed up against my shirt as I was bending down to feed her. When I got home, Frasier would not leave me alone for anything! He kept coming up to me, and inhaling very deeply against my shirt. Then he would look at me, and I know what he was thinking: "OK Mom, where's my snack!?".

Friday tomorrow. About time!

Just Stuff

Lots of stuff on my mind today! And I might even remember it all. Yeah, right.

Puppies: They are parked beside me right now, Frasier is grooming Maggie. She will pester him until he starts playing, but what she really wants is to get him so riled up that he'll start grooming her to make her stop playing. Which works, because getting groomed seems to be her real agenda but Frasier hasn't figured it out yet. Which is a switch, usually he's the smart one.

Both doggies were in disgrace this morning. Seems that one of them figured out how to get into the trash bag and the contents of the bag were redistributed all over the kitchen. And even into the living room, where there was a dusting of coffee grounds on the carpet. Otter also noticed that one of them had taken some of the trash half-way out the dog door into the back yard. I have my suspicions as to which dog did what. And they are both guilty! Frasier would not even look at me this morning, he stayed on the opposite side of the room from me. Maggie would at least look at us, but she was a little less bouncy than she normally is.

Also on my mind: Otter. At the moment, she is at school. The try-outs for the school play are this afternoon. It's about 4:30 as I type, try-outs started at 3:00 and last until 5:00. If she gets out earlier, she'll call me. But since I haven't heard from her yet, I think I'll get the doggies leashed and loaded into the car then head up there about 20 minutes from now.

Simplification is next on my list. I'm still working on it. We have quit using paper napkins, I have a boatload of fabric napkins so we've started using them. They get tossed in the laundry and they don't make any more work. I have been cleaning out a lot of stuff, I took a trunkload to Goodwill to donate today. Still need to get my rain barrel set up, but it will need to be cleaned and scrubbed first.

Yard work! I am going to move a bunch more iris bulbs this fall, I'm just not quite sure where I'm going to move them to yet. I know where I'm moving them away from - around the trees. I think I'll probably put a third row behind the house, there are two rows already but they are farther out from the house than I would like them to be so I'll probably put a row closer to the house. There will still be quite a few around the trees, I just want to thin them out a little bit. Possibly I might put some of them beside the shed in the back yard. I'll figure that out a little closer to time to move them, it depends on how many I actually dig up. Also, I'm beginning to see bulbs in the stores so we need to start thinking about the tulip bed. I think Otter wants to plant a variety of colors, like we did last year.

Crafting. I have been in a crafting mood for a while now, and I generally always have several projects in various stages of completion. I have finished up quite a few lately. I still have several waiting to be worked on, and I spent a few hours on Saturday working on them. I love having the time on Saturdays to do things like that. Froggy, I'm nearly through with the ceramic tree. I thought I was finished with it, but I've discovered a few spots that I think need to be touched up again. Then when I'm satisfied that all the spots have been painted, I'll seal it. Also, Otter and I have a sock monkey waiting on us! It's mostly done, but the limbs need to be attached. Then I think we're going to redo the face, it doesn't look quite right.

Fall/Autumn. It's still August, but I kind of think we're in for an early Fall this year. I hope that we do not have to go through more bad ice situations like we did last year. We need to get the fireplace checked, when we had the chimney swept last year the guy said it was going to need some work. I need to get that scheduled, but it has to be on a day that Bill can be here so they can show him just what it's going to need.

Driving lessons. I have scheduled Otter's driving lessons through the driving school, she has four 1 1/2 hour sessions scheduled. Two the week after next and two the week after that. We are also going to continue to work with her and teach her, I had planned on that tonight but she's later due to the try-outs and then she'll have homework so it's probably not going to happen tonight.

Ok, that's it for today's installment! I will be posting my August book list in the next few days.

Summer's End

I am declaring that Summer is officially over as of today. We took the pool down and it's put away until about May of next year. It took us all day to get it put up and filled, but it only takes a couple of hours to get it drained and boxed. Otter had planned on swimming yesterday, but it never really got warm enough and then we had a thunderstorm. So instead, she got in the pool when we were going to drain it and took the toys out. Then she got herself arranged on her inner tube and we pushed the sides down so she could ride over the side and a few feet over the grass. She was able to get back in and ride two more times before the water got too low. But she did enjoy it. She thought that the water would have been warm enough to swim today, but it really wasn't. There is a nice big square area in the center of my yard that now looks like the world's biggest mud pie. Needless to say, the dogs are now prohibited from the rest of the yard! Frasier has an affinity for mud. The grass will still have enough time to cover the pool area by the end of the season, or at least it will have time to give it a good try. We could see where moles had been tunneling and had apparently been planning on coming up to the surface in a couple of spots, but they were stopped by the pool. There were also quite a few earthworms we spotted in the dirt.

We really got a lot of enjoyment out of the pool this summer. We finally figured out how to keep the water clear and not get algae: quit trying. We just filled up the Duckinator with chlorine tabs and kept it filled, and that was enough. We've usually used testing kits and chemicals but they never really worked and we had more problems with green water when we were using the kits. So this year, we didn't get a new kit (because we never got around to it) and just used the Duckinator. And it was absolutely fine. The Duckinator is a container that holds the chlorine tabs, it has a topper that is a rubber duck wearing sunglasses. It's cute. I've also seen them with turtles and penguins, but we like our ducky.

Incidentally, we refer to the pool as "the pool that eBay bought" because it was the first big item we bought after we started selling on eBay. We figured out that we've had it 7 years. I think we've gotten our money's worth out of it by now!

Otter got a driving lesson this afternoon. Bill took her out for about 30 minutes. When I asked her how it went, she told me all about hopping the curb on a turn. She'll learn! I am going to call the driving school tomorrow and get her scheduled for the rest of her lessons, but we still have to give her lessons because she has to have so many hours behind the wheel to get the actual license. I'll probably take her out a couple of times this week, depending on the weather. Some of the hours she needs have to be at night, but those won't be until she's gotten some practice in.

While she was out being Speed Racer, I got finished with my sewing shelf. I at least got all my misc. stuff into two plastic crates and up on the shelf. I can probably get it a little better organized, but I was tired of it and just wanted it done. Later on, I'll worry about reorganizing it. For now, it's fine. And now, it's back to my laundry!

Some Boring Sunday Stuff

It's early, 6:43 a.m. as I type. But I'm probably going to update this during the day so by the time I actually get this posted, it could be midnight! :)

I had a Borg Queen moment yesterday. In what was formerly known as the eBay closet, we have two plastic 5-shelf units. One on each side. One of them still has eBay stuff (actually empty shelves where eBay stuff used to go), and the other one is half mine and half Bill's. My half has sewing & crochet stuff, Bill's half has computer stuff & a printer. We each have two shelves. The 5th one has some surplus stuff and some of our weather emergency supplies. Anyway, back to the point. I think I had one anyway. One of my shelves had about 4 large paper grocery bags and the box my sewing machine came in. All were full of scrap fabric, misc. fabric and sewing supplies. I took them to the living room yesterday and dumped them out. Otter and I went through them and found a lot of older fabric to put on eBay, a large plastic trash bag is now full of fabric and older clothes and is destined for Goodwill, and we now just have one bag of fabric/family clothing to keep for eventual quilt squares. I now have a place to put my picnic basket with my crochet stuff, I was tired of tripping over it. I still need to go through my second shelf, but mostly it needs to be rearranged. It's got stuff like my sewing machine and my thread on it. I don't think that there's much, if anything, that I'll get rid of on that shelf since I cleaned it out several months ago.

Maggie thought that she should get to play with all the stuff we had piled in the living room yesterday. When she wasn't allowed to, she got right up in my lap and pretended to be unloved. Frasier had zero interest in the fabric, etc., he just wanted to get Maggie's chewbone. Which he did, as soon as she came over to help us.

I thought about taking my cactus back out yesterday morning, but I never quite got around to it. Which is a good thing, because we had a nice rain storm in the late morning/early afternoon. A little thunder, but not really bad weather. Just a nice rain. And Bill had to go unclog one of the rain gutters in the middle of the storm, since it was overflowing and he was afraid that if he waited the entire gutter might fall. It just had a couple of leaves that were blocking it. But he did get wet!

Among other things, I did get my pink robe put back together. The same one that Mom brought me in the hospital when Otter was born. Yes, I still have it Froggy! I've put it in the quilt scrap pile several times, but I keep taking it back out. It's had seams that came apart as the thread is kind of old, the hem came out and both sleeves hems were coming out. All of it is because of the thread. I've made several attempts over the years to replace my robe, but I'm very attached to this one. I found it in the quilt scraps pile yesterday and I decided to go ahead and patch it. So I got the sewing machine out and got busy. I know it seems strange, but this robe has a lot of good memories associated with it - Mom gave it to me and Otter's first days of life. So it was never going to be tossed, it would and may still eventually become quilt scraps.

Ok, it's nearly 7:00 now. Time to go get Otter out of bed! I'm sure she'll be pleased. Well, that's what I'll tell myself anyway! She probably hopes that I've forgotten what I told her at bedtime last night: the house is a wreck and we're going to clean today! I feel another Borg Queen moment coming on.

Third Time is a Charm!

It took me three tries to get into my blog. I kept goofing up my password. Like Toadles says, FFD. (Fat Finger Disease).

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. I called my credit card company just to be sure that they weren't the ones that called me, because I have had to talk to them lately - they have managed to misplace a payment I sent them. It was an extra payment, so there won't be any problems such as late fees or anything. But it's still an aggravation. I sent them two extra payments, I put them in the same envelope. And they only got one. They think that when the envelope was opened, whomever or whichever machine in question took the check out and then didn't look in the envelope so they didn't see the second check. So I'm probably going to have to get a stop payment issued on it and then send them another one. But they told me to wait a few days to give them time to possibly find it. So I thought it was worth checking with them, although I was pretty sure that it was a scam attempt. Which is exactly what it was, apparently there have been quite a few customers besides me who have had scam calls. I don't think it's just for my specific company, I think it's a pretty wide spread attempt at stealing identities. And I didn't give them any information, so they didn't get anything from us. And they won't, should they attempt it again with us.

The other thing I've noticed is that since the economy has started to tighten, we get a lot of automated calls at work where someone wants to loan us money. I just hang up on them, but when they come in after hours the answering machine generally records as long as there is something to record. It gets kind of frustrating, dealing with that.

My favorite Fenton dealer has closed her shop. She has a (very small) booth in an antique/upscale craft/decor mall and I went to check out her booth today on my lunch hour. It was a very depressing trip. She is such a nice person and that shop was her lifelong dream. I didn't see her, which was a shame. Her shop was doing pretty good, until a few months ago. When Fenton announced that they were closing, she had a rush of business. And then nothing. For quite a while. So she added a Watkins Spices line, but it's not a big seller. I did my best to keep her in business! Her lease was up in the spring and she was considering adding another collectible glass company, but I think she just got tired of the uncertainty and the economy didn't help. I really hope that her booth does well, but I don't think she'll be in business too much longer. It was pretty sad, seeing her tiny booth today.

We thought that Otter might be coming down with something, she has had a sore throat off and on the last day or so and has had asthma symptoms. She had a sore throat this morning but was able to go to school. All day long, I expected a call to come get her. But she made the day and when I picked her up she said that she was feeling pretty good and her throat was fine. I hope that continues, but asthma and cold-type stuff can be very sneaky where Otter is concerned. It can act like it's flaring up, then get better. Then WHAM! It will be back and with a vengeance. But she seems pretty clear this afternoon.

And now Frasier wants my undivided attention. It's puppy play time!

Why Do People Think I'm Stupid?

Specifically, the people who call me on the phone and pretend to be my credit card company. The ones who get mad at me when I won't give them my personal information. That is today's gripe. We were eating dinner when the phone rang, Bill answered it and then handed it to me since the person said that they were with our credit card company and I handle all our finances. I take the phone and the woman immediately starts telling me that I have to tell her my name and phone number to "verify." Which is when I said to her that she should already have that info and if she wants to tell me what she has, then I'll confirm or deny. She didn't like that answer. She kept asking me for my info and I finally told her that I didn't call her, she called me and that she could tell me what she had or I would NOT give her any information. Then she said that she just didn't see why I wouldn't tell her what she asked, since they had it all already. And I said that if they really did have it all already, then why did I have to tell her what she already knew? At which time she got really snippy & rude and told me to have a nice day - except that somehow I just don't really think she meant it. Then she was still talking when I hung up, I think she was complaining to someone else that was there since she wasn't talking to me. I'll call my credit card company tomorrow to confirm that it wasn't them, just in case but I don't think it was them. For one thing, they wouldn't be rude since all their calls are monitored. When I've had to talk to them, they have always been very professional.

I guess that's the latest scam. We used to get calls from people claiming that they were with eBay and needed us to confirm our information. But we never satisfied their inquiring minds, either!

I decided not to postpone the inevetable. I brought some of my plant stands inside and relocated the cactus plants to the dining room. I'm going to have to do some rearranging now. But that's fine, it's fun.

Magginator is suddenly shedding. All over the place! Otter tackled her with the brush tonight, which the dog absolutely loved. It helped, but there is still fur flying and it's beagle colored.

Since we're discussing dogs, Frasier needs to be mentioned so he doesn't feel left out. I was awakened very early this morning by what I at first thought was Bill snoring. I was about to poke him in the side and tell him to roll over, when I realized that the noise was coming from the foot of the bed and that it was Frasier! He was talking to me. I think he was hoping for an early breakfast. Which he did NOT get, by the way. But it was funny.

Some More Senseless Ramblings

I'm wondering if maybe Summer is over but nobody told the calender yet. It's been pretty cool for this time of year, it should only be in the mid-70's tomorrow. It's nice, I'm not really complaining. But we have not been able to swim for over a week because it's just too cold. The water doesn't get warm enough at these temperatures. We might go ahead and take the pool down this coming weekend. We talked about it last weekend but decided to wait until Labor Day. However, we might not wait that long. We have really enjoyed having it up this year.

I'm also beginning to think about the tulip bed. Otter wants tulips again, which is fine with me! We'll probably always have a tulip bed. I haven't seen any bulbs in the stores yet, but they will probably arrive in the next few weeks. I got the weed-eater out the other day and hit the tulip bed, and it will need someone to go after it with the shovel for the actual weed removal. But that can wait until a few weeks before we plant it, since we'll still need to treat the dirt for moles & gophers. I'm also going to plant a few bluebonnet seeds in the whiskey barrel, but that won't be done until it's much colder. I've never had much luck with growing them from seeds, but I think that might be because I was planting them at the wrong time of the year.

I think that this weekend will be when I have time to get the cactus plants organized inside. I have to figure out just how I'm going to arrange all my plant stands and what will go where. The cactus have usually been on my corner plant stand, but it's been taken over with Texas stuff. I'll figure something out. Getting rid of any of the cactus is NOT an option.

Otter said that they still don't have lockers. Some kids do, but there are a lot that had mixed up locks. She'd really like to get her locker tomorrow since some of the teachers have already started assigning books. She is enjoying taking her lunch in her Bento box. But she'd like to be able to leave it in her locker before & after lunch!

Froggy, I think you are right. I do need to keep my Fenton basket. I sold some Fenton pieces a couple of years ago and regretted it immediately. I'm still unhappy about it. So I'm not even going to consider selling any more of it.

The area behind our house has been mowed. Sometimes that means that a new home is about to be started. But it's not just behind us, it looks like the rest of the area is being mowed as well. Since there were ragweed popping up in there, we aren't complaining. But we did enjoy the privacy and not having neighbors back there.

Bill is playing a game on his computer, the Sims. It has realistic sound effects. Sometimes I hear whistling, sometimes it's music. And sometimes it's a toilet being flushed! Really a strange sound to hear from the other side of the office.

There is a very large, brown, furry object in the floor in the middle of the office. He's so perfectly still that I had to look to be sure he's breathing! He's also taking up just about all the available space. The smaller unidentfied furry object is nowhere in sight, which means that she's probably curled up in one of her two favorite sleeping spots: Otter's bed or my closet. For some strange reason, Maggie has suddenly started sleeping in my closet. She gets completely up underneath the hanging clothes and sleeps. I've been finding beagle hair on my shirts on the right side.

Otter was unhappy to learn that the next Harry Potter movie won't be coming out this winter after all. It's been moved from November until sometime next year, summer I think. She was not pleased!

Before I forget - I added a new blog to my list of blogs I read. It's called cakewrecks. It's really funny, go check it out.

Some Monday Thoughts & Stuff

Otter's enjoying 10th grade so far. She has Drama this year, which is what she was hoping for. I think she'll really enjoy that, seeing as she's quite the Drama Queen already. (I'm going to pay for that comment, I know.) They were supposed to get the locker assignments today. Which they did. However, the locks were apparently mixed up somewhere along the line because none of the kids in her class they were assigned in could get their lockers to open. The locks are the removable kind, and somebody goofed somewhere.

There is a beagle asleep in the floor, right behind Otter's chair. When it was getting close to time for the school bus, Maggie was looking out the window. I think she was watching for the bus, she had a very intent expression on her little, furry face and as soon as she saw the bus she flew to the front door. Where she whined and wiggled so much she could hardly stand, and then when she saw Otter she was nearly delirious! She's hardly left Otter's side since then. Frasier is content to sit in the living room, with the new chewbones I gave them today. He's probably got both chewbones, he likes to take things like that outside but the last time I checked they were still inside. He's been busy, however. We have a large plastic barrel that we use to hold coke cans until it gets full. Then Bill takes the cans to the recycling place that buys them. We also put tinfoil in the barrel. We know it's full enough to take down, when Frasier can reach the contents. Two or three times lately, I've had to retrieve cans and clean up shredded foil that mysteriously appears just outside the doggie door from the garage. Frasier is denying responsibility, of course.

I've been doing a little Fenton research. I had been toying with the idea of selling the basket I bought when Froggy was here, the one I got for $3.00 at the thrift store. I have a good idea when it was produced, mid-1980's, and I have identified the artist who signed it. But I could not find the pattern name anywhere. But I asked the Expert on another site, and he identified it as Berries and Blossoms. Thanks, 'Keet! And I think I'm going to hang on to it, at least for a while. I might change my mind later, but I really don't think so. Froggy, since you left I haven't found any more Fenton like that. Just expensive stuff, but no good finds. You need to come back.

It's been mild weather the last few days. Much cooler than normal. It's been nice. We've had some rain, but not a lot. However, we could get rain starting tonight and lasting for a couple of days. So the cactus got brought back in today. They just went back outside yesterday! I probably should just move them inside for the year, but I will have to rearrange my indoor plants and I'm not really in a hurry to do that. My Pear is growing another leaf, I'm putting off re-potting it but I am not going to be able to wait much longer. It's going to need a much bigger pot. Soon. I think that I'm going to look for something similar to the big, pink pot that I got last year (when Froggy was here) which currently has two cactus planted in it. I still would like a cast-iron cooking pot to plant cactus in, but it needs to be small enough that I can carry it since it gets too cold here in the winter for most cactus. I might still buy a cast-iron pot and use it as an outside planter, something I replant each year. But that's just a thought at this point.

I still have a prayer request concerning Virginia's grandkids. There is a court date next week, she and her husband are trying to get legal custody established and I have to say that I am 100% behind them on this. Those kids have virtually been abandoned by their father and even when he did take them they were not safe with him. Long story, but there is a protective order in place against him now. The best thing would be for the custody to be placed in Virginia and David's hands, and for their father to be out of their life. It's a sad situation and the last thing that they wanted, but nobody is surprised that he's abandoned his children. The fear now is that out of spite or stupid macho pride he will contest it or possibly even try to grab the kids. So prayers would be helpful, for all concerned.

I have some other thoughts, but I'm not quite ready to post about them. Nothing to worry about, I just have to get my thoughts in order first. Simplification is a big part of it. I'm just not quite there yet! Toadly would probably say that I'm not all there anyway, but he's not far behind! :)

Old Man of the Mountain

Toadles, this is just for you.

Day One is Over!

Otter survived the first day of 10th grade. She said she actually enjoyed it and thinks she's going to have a good year. She has the first lunch period and so do all of her friends. She took her lunch in her Bento box today, but tomorrow she'll probably buy hot lunch. Thursday's lunch is her favorite, chicken patty on a bun. So that will probably be the day she generally buys her lunch.

No homework yet, but it'll start soon enough. She said the bus ride was uneventful, but she still has the same bus driver as she's always had. We were hoping that this woman would retire, Otter says she's always grouchy and I have seen her drive enough to know that she should probably be in another line of work! Otter also has a few supplies that we need to get, which we will probably do tomorrow after school. Most of the stuff she needs is stuff that we already have.

Since I've been home, I got out my trusty weed-eater and went after the tulip bed. It's been overgrown with weeds for quite a while, we never did anything with it after the tulips finished up. Otter said it looked like I'd given it a haircut, but scalped is probably a more appropriate word! I also hit the whiskey barrel planter that had my bluebonnets. Then I had to go get gas for the lawn mower, which Bill is going to use in the front yard tonight. He managed to mow the back yard last night, before he ran out of gas. While he was mowing last night, I was using the weed eater around the rock garden and a few other spots. I really enjoy working outside, lawn and garden chores are fun.

But before he mows the lawn, he's going to get up on the roof to seal a couple of cracked spots on the rock that they chimney is made of. Otter thinks that she should dial 9 and 1 on her phone, and be ready to dial the other one and press send! Might not be a bad idea, since this is Bill we are dealing with after all.

Ok, the pool is calling me now!

2 Days & Counting!

Until school starts again. Otter's not excited. Imagine that!

We went to the mall at lunch today, she went with me to work. We bought her several pairs of earrings. She's lost so many, it's unbelievable. So she's restocked now, and hopefully they'll stay.

She gets a lazy day tomorrow, the last day of summer break. She will get to sleep in, she'll just call me when she wakes up. She will not have a chore list, she'll get to do whatever she wants to. All day long. I predict that the tv will get a lot of use, and she'll probably read a lot. She also might get some of her crafting done, and there are two dogs that will probably get some playtime with Otter as well. She won't be bored, that's for sure! She intends to enjoy her last day of freedom and I'm sure she will.

On Monday, she starts back at karate. She's pretty out of practice, but it will come back quickly. She's very good. It's been close to 2 months since she's been. She will still get the Black Belt, but it might not happen this year due to her long break.

I have a prayer request. For my friend Virginia. Without going into specifics, it involves her grandchildren and they really could use some prayers. I don't want to say too much about it until I've cleared it with her, but any prayers for the well-being of the children would be appreciated.

Sunday Musings of The Borg Queen

Otter just informed me that she really doesn't like it when I turn into the Borg Queen on her and her Dad. I find that amusing. She has no idea just how Borg Queen I can get! :) She did tell me one time that she might be having Borg Queen junior moments, I forget what it was that she was doing at the time but I was happy about it.

For those of you who are non Star Trek fans, the Borg are a race of cyborgs. Part human, mostly machine. They tend to replenish their species by taking over other humans and turning them into borgs. They like things to be a certain way, and their queen is the ultimate control freak. The Borg are from the second series, The Next Generation. They were the bad guys in one of the movies from that series, First Contact. That's when their Queen was introduced. Very shortly after she comes on screen, Bill leans over to me and says something along the lines of "you realize that is YOU up on the screen, don't you?" I don't see why, just because she likes everything in it's place and all her ducks in a row - quacking & walking in unison. Just like me, in other words! Bill always tells me that he's got duckies here and there and everywhere, but mine are always in a row. An exact row! Resistance is futile, after all!

Today's Borg Queen moment involved Otter cleaning out her desk and reorganizing it. She threw out a lot, and now has quite a bit of empty space in her desk drawers. She found a lot of earrings, coins, books and other things in the desk. They are now all in their correct places. Which makes me happy. The next target for the Borg Queen is Otter's bookshelf in her room. We might get to that today, we'll see. Be afraid Otter, be very afraid!

Actually, there was another Borg Queen event. I bullied Bill into cleaning out his t-shirts! His closet was overflowing with t-shirts, and very few of them are actually nice. Most of them have big holes, tears or permanent stains. He mentioned the other day that he needed to clean them out, and I "organized" him into it this morning. He still has quite a few of what he calls work t-shirts, which are for working on the car and stuff like that. But the worse of the torn & stained t-shirts are now in the rag bag in the garage.

Maggie is parked just outside the doorway to my bedroom. Otter had to step over her just now, and the dog never even budged. There is a reason Maggie's middle name Underfoot! Frasier's not left out, he has a middle name: Intheway. Frasier likes to park himself in the kitchen by the table, he has two spots and both of them are right in the walkway. Consequently, he gets stepped on and tripped over a lot. He just lied down beside me, and he made a noise on the way down. I think he might have just deflated! For such a big dog, he can sure flatten himself out when he wants to. Some people have bear skin rugs, I have a Frasier rug.

(It's Later).

We went to Target and found a divided container for Otter to use to carry her lunch to school. She wanted a Bento box, which is a small box that Japanese students use to carry their lunch in. We looked on eBay for an "authentic" bento box, but they were really expensive and basically the same thing we could find at just about any store. She found what she wanted at Target. She'd probably prefer to buy her lunch every day at school, but there are not a whole lot of healthy choices. So we compromised - she will still take her lunch most days, but she got to get a bento box. She's finally learned to pick her battles! She will get to buy her lunch sometimes.

We also found her a planner, a binder and more mechanical pencils. She's probably going to need other actual school supplies, but she won't find out what she needs until the first day of school. And then we'll decide just what we're going to buy. Every year, the teachers have always asked for a bunch of stuff that never, ever gets used. And it's generally always the same stuff. Sometimes I think they just enjoy making parents buy a bunch of stuff just because they can!

And Maggie is still parked in the floor, but she's no longer in the doorway. She's now right behind Otter's chair. Where still stay until Otter turns around and sees her, then she'll scoot even closer and ask for a belly rub!

Ok, back to my laundry now.

Simple Saturday

I spent a lot of my day watching hummingbirds. There are 7 that we know of, but it's kind of hard to count them! There might be more. I now have four feeders up, I put up another one today. I am probably going to have to refill at least one tomorrow, maybe two. They are such fun to watch. There are at least two males, the rest might all be female.

Otter is pretty much over the migraine and related symptoms. She didn't sleep too well last night, but she slept until about 9:30 this morning and took it easy most of the day. She did get in the pool with us this afternoon and I think she really enjoyed it. She had some tummy troubles last night, and her stomach was still kind of quivery this morning so we decided to change our plans for today which involved making pizzas. We'll make them tomorrow.

I forgot about another family curse, which also came from Mom. Asthma! She had it when she was younger, Dad said that she still had it when they were married but she "outgrew" it over time. Today we know that asthma is never really outgrown, it doesn't actually go away. It does sometimes go into remission, just like other bad diseases, but it's always there. I had it for years before I was officially diagnosed, and Otter was diagnosed when she was about 3. Although the first symptoms where when she was about 2 1/2. Froggy's kids have had it, too. At least two of the three. Possibly all three, I'm not sure. She'll tell me!

Anyway, back to simple Saturday stuff. We watched a movie, it was Bill's turn to pick. He rented the newest Stargate movie. It was pretty good, the series was very good and it went off the air a while back but there have been two movies since the series. I spent a lot of time on the couch, reading. I finished one book and read two others front to back cover. I also started another one. They'll be on my list at the end of the month. I think I'm up to about 7 or 8 now. I was going to work on some of my crafts, but I just never quite got around to it. Same thing with crochet - I have a few projects, but I'm not in the mood to crochet right now. I will be again soon, however!

I did have to treat Frasier's ears today, but that's something I have to do pretty often anyway. He tried to get around me and go out his door, but I caught him and he plopped down in the kitchen floor and waited with his head flat on the floor. It's so much easier when he cooperates! Of course, he knows that there is a treat waiting for him at the end, so that might have something to do with why he's been so cooperative lately. And Magginator gets a treat when he does, so she was right there waiting. Each one gets a treat when the other dog gets medicated or claws clipped. Maggie got a claw trimming today, which she did not like but we were able to get most of them this time.

We watched most of the opening ceremony of the Olympics last night. We missed about the first 30 minutes, so we saw most of it. The lighting ceremony was amazing! I don't see how this one can be topped, it was spectacular. Like someone said, this was China's "coming out party" to the world and they were going to do it right. China has been a strong force in the past, but now they are going to be a very strong force to be reckoned with. They did the ceremony right, it was very good.

It's only 9:30, but I am going to be heading for bed in a few minutes. I did not get a lot of sleep last night either, listening for Otter! Also, I slept on the couch so I could hear her if she had any more tummy episodes, and I woke up a lot because the couch wasn't very comfortable. The last time I slept on it for any length of time was when I had my surgery and I figured out pretty quickly that I couldn't get out of the bed once I managed to get in it. I don't remember it being so uncomfortable, but then I was still drugged up then from the surgery, anti nausea pills and pain pills. Which is probably why I slept at all then!

Family Curses

Sorry the picture isn't bigger! I couldn't really find anything that quite communicated the agonizing pain of a migraine. At least, not anything that would not be extremely gory! I did see a picture painted one time, it was done by a migraine sufferer. It was basically a person with a giant screw stuck through one side of their head. And it was a pretty good depiction.

There are a few things that we refer to as Family Curses. One of them is migraines. They are from our mom's side of the family. I've had them, Froggy has had them and possibly Toadly has also. I know he's had cluster headaches, which are related. Migraines are horrible, unless you've had one there is no way to explain just how debilitating they can be. They are about as bad as bad can be.

There were a few things that we did NOT want Otter to inherit. They included: Cravens migraines, our Dad's knees (last name not used on this blog), Cravens teeth. Well, she got the Cravens migrains and Dad's knees. I guess we should be thankful that she did NOT inherit the Cravens teeth. Normally, two out of three is a good thing. But not this time!

However, that does not make her feel better. She's been down with a migraine most of the afternoon. She had the first one about 4 or 5 years ago, and they've been getting worse over time. Which is normal, and she is just in the early stages of the peak years for them if she follows my pattern. Her doctor suggested a combination of tylenol and motrin, but when she's out of tylenol she will just take motrin. And she wants to sleep when she has one.

The knees are not really a bad problem, but they do bother her at karate. Also if she's been on her feet for several hours.

At least she's got good teeth.

My Buzzy Evening

The hummers are back! We've been seeing a few, so I put out another feeder last week which brought my total up to three feeders. We knew that there were at least three birds. But now there are more. I know that there are four for sure, but I actually think that there are about 7. I'll probably put out at least one more feeder this weekend. In the meantime, here's a few from tonight. All the same bird, on the feeder that she "owns." I can get quite close to them, they don't seem to mind me. They had dogfights over my head a few times. They hovered over me a lot, they don't seem to be afraid of me. This is the feeder that is right outside my living room window.

I also managed to rid the world of one mosquito. But it got a taste of me first! There were a few others, but I missed them. And I also discovered that the chairs on the deck were not quite as dry as they appeared to be.

Permitted!

Otter got her learner's permit this afternoon. She only missed one question on the written test, and then we had to take her paperwork to a tag agency to get the actual license. The tag agencies are the state licensed agencies where you register your car title and renew/get your driver's license or id card. Otter is now officially licensed and she is happy about it! In 6 months, she can get her regular license. We could have waited until after the driving portion of the lessons, but in order to be able to teach her ourselves as well she needed to have her permit. It looks just like a license, but it does have two spots on it that aren't on the regular license. Both have to do with her age, one has "over 21 on (date)" and the other one has "over 18 on (date)" and are so that she can't buy liquor or cigarettes. Not that she would, but the state law requires that wording on the licences. I guess that the state thinks the clerks can't figure out the math to determine age without having the answer right in front of them! And they might be right...

Anyway, I called my car insurance company and they said that with the learner's permit she will still be covered on our current insurance policy. But when she gets her actual license then we'll need to add her on. That's when the $$ will change. And it won't be cheap. It's cheaper for girls than boys, but it's still going to be a steep increase. But it will be a necessary one.

Most tag agencies are also authorized to issue a PikePass, which is a small box with electronic stuff inside it that will be read by the electronic meters on the turnpike. It attaches to the windshield of the vehicle. There is a discount on the turnpike cost if you have a PikePass and I've had one for years. Bill finally decided to get one himself. There are quite a few turnpikes in this state and the one close to us really does save a lot of time. It means that we miss several miles of stop & start traffic, lights and intersection. Bill has always resisted, he said he didn't want to pay to go to work. But with gas costs, and the atrocious mileage his van gets, it will be cheaper for him to use a PikePass and not spend a lot of gas waiting at intersections. So I added him on to my account while we were at the tag agency, but he needs a special model that they didn't have in stock. It will be mailed out, we should get it in a few days. The van windows are slanted quite a bit, and the regular boxes don't read right so he has to wait a few days before he can start using the turnpike without having to pay cash.

Ok, Froggy figured it out. My good day at work question dealing with catching up with Bill: I got a HUGE raise yesterday. Bill's comment was that I was about to catch up with him on an hourly wage basis. I'm part time but I am probably making more than I ever did when I worked full-time anywhere. I have it good there and I know it. One of Froggy's other guesses was that I'd finally finished my quilt but that isn't going to happen anytime soon!

Some Thoughts Today

This is for Toadly and Froggy. Bring back memories? (Watermelons and the pool!)

This is something that made me think about Otter! She's very much "out of the box" and doesn't follow the herd. And we're glad about that.

I remembered what I was going to post about last night. Hummingbirds! Otter and I refilled the two feeders we had up and we put up a third as well. We've seen more birds lately, there are 3 that we know of and they were fighting over the two feeders. So now we have three feeders and three birds. And they are still fighting! But they are fun to watch. When we were in the pool Sunday they were just barely above our heads, I don't think that they realized we were there.

Still warm, but I am used to it. We really don't get that much extremely hot weather in this part of the state, but to hear these people up here complain... I don't particularly like extreme heat, but I did grow up with it and it's just a fact of life to deal with. Complaining doesn't do a bit of good!

Besides, I'm in too good a mood today to complain. Just a very good day at work. More details about that later, after Froggy, Toadly and Kimberly figure it out! (I told them that I'm catching up with Bill and that they have to figure out what I mean - the first guess was from Froggy and it was that I had hurt myself, etc., which is not anywhere near the answer. But it is what I expected to hear!)

Think good thoughts for Otter tomorrow afternoon around 3:00. That's when she'll be taking her written test for her learner's permit. Thursday after work we'll be getting her hair trimmed. Then we'll have everything done that we wanted/needed to do before school starts next week. She has been on a karate break, with camp & her trip then driving lessons. But she'll be starting back right away. Possibly next Monday.

Otter posted another chapter in her web comic on her blog this afternoon. She's been working on ponies for the last several days, they have been parked in her bathroom on the counter with clips & pins in their hair in an effort to restyle their manes and tails. Looks like a pony farm in there. She's branching out, I noticed that there are other animals in the comics. Never heard of attack chickens myself, but you never know!

It's on the Schedule

Otter got her schedule for school today, in other words. She's not too thrilled, but school is just over a week away. Her schedule looks easy, the majority of her classes are at least in the same building. Her first, second and third classes are pretty close together. The rest are not all that far away from each other. She won't get her lock assignment until about a week after school starts, we're hoping that it's close to her classes.

We weren't able to get supply lists, but she's got the basic stuff already. Teachers might have specific items that they want. Otter will probably find that out on the first day of school.

It was over 100 today, I don't know the exact temperature but it was supposed to get to about 105. I'm not sure if it actually did, it was warm but it didn't feel quite that warm to me. It is supposed to be warm tomorrow, but then it could be in the low 90's by the end of the week. I'm not complaining!

We're going to take Otter to the licensing place on Wednesday, for the written test. If she passes, and she should not have any problem, she'll get her learner's permit.

I guess that's it!

Some Sunday Stuff, Early (& Later Update)

It's early as I type this, but I'll probably update it later. It's not quite 7:30 a.m., we've had breakfast and I have a load of laundry going. Otter and I are going to get dressed and head out to Sunday School in about an hour. Billy Boy is out in the driveway, tinkering with the van. Which wouldn't be a worry, if he were normal. But he's not normal, he's Bill!

We had a good Saturday, we stayed inside most of the day and enjoyed the air conditioning. Late in the afternoon, Otter and I got in the pool. Bill was working on his car project, he's taking apart and rebuilding it for about the 185th time. He sat out in the back yard and talked to us while we swam and he played with his toy, I mean worked on his project. Otter rented the movie 1408, which sounded good. But that's about all I can say - that it sounded good. Don't waste your time on this one. It's a typical story taken from a Steven King story - note that I said "taken from" not "screenplay written by." In other words, it was awful.

Otter has discovered Dr. Who! Remember that show? It was fantastic when it was on many years ago. It was resurrected several years ago, it didn't do too well. But about 4 or so years ago, there was a new series created and it aired on the BBC. It is tremendous! We have been addicted to it since we first started watching it, back "first generation" to borrow a phrase from that other sci-fi show that I occasionally watch. OK, so I'm obsessed with that other sci-fi show. But anyway, I'm discussing Dr. Who right now and not that "other show." Anyway, the current series is on about it's 4th year and we are really enjoying it. It's on the Sci-Fi network. A lot of the early episodes from the current series have been uploaded onto Utube. Watch them, if you have the time. They are worth the time and effort.

After thinking about it, Otter and I have decided that yes, we are going shopping this afternoon. I am looking for a couple of things for myself. Otter doesn't really need anything, but she probably won't object to getting a few new things if we find any. She wants a couple of books anyway, so we'll hit the bookstore while we're at the mall. Also I think she wants to look for more earrings. She has plenty, but you can never have too many!

This is one of my newest back yard babies. It's what we Texans refer to as a pear. It's actually called a Prickly Pear, for those who don't speak Texan. I have been wanting one for a while, but they are not too easy to find up here. They grow to be huge, and I'd love a big one out in the yard but I don't think that they can take the amount of cold weather that we get. They can stand a little, but not as much as we sometimes get. I haven't even seen them at any stores, this one was actually one of the cactus that you might have seen where there is a bloom from another type of cactus glued onto the top. The fake bloom fell off of this one before I bought it. I saw it and wasn't sure if it really was what it looked like, until I read the label. I wasn't even sure if it was going to survive. But it is thriving, it's even growing. The top section is new, so I think it's happy. I really don't know how big it's going to be but I'm going to have to repot it at some point. Probably sooner than later. I'd love to plant it outside somewhere and I might try but I think what I'll actually do is wait until it gets bigger and grows more sections. Then I can take off a small section and root it. Because I really don't know if they can take our winters.

This is Frasier from a few minutes ago. He was cruising the back yard, looking for things to bark at. He didn't find any, but he was having a good time. Bill was getting ready to mow, and Maggie was safely inside. She's not afraid of the mower, she just didn't want to go outside for some reason. She might have thought that we were about to block them outside.

Probably more later, after we go shopping.

(Here's the later Update!)

The shopping was a bust. We went to the first mall and bought nothing, but we did look in several stores. So we decided to go to another mall, since we were early and not all the stores were open yet. Otter wanted to look in a specific store for earrings and there was one at the other mall. We figured that by the time we got there, they would be open. Which probably would have been a good plan - except that the store in the other mall is not there any longer. So we looked at several other stores and still found nothing. Otter did buy the book she wanted, at least. We ate lunch at the mall's food court but it wasn't very good. It just was not a good shopping day for us. So we came home.

Otter's been reading her new book and I've been doing some stuff around the house that I wanted to get done. Including laundry, which never seems to go away no matter how hard I want it to! We might get in the pool later, but other than that it's going to be a quiet afternoon. It's still pretty hot and we have another heat warning, which the dogs have taken seriously because they have spent most of their time snoozing in front of an a/c vent.

Tax Free Shopping Weekend Started Today

And we're done already. We went to Wallyworld for groceries, and while we were there we bought a couple pairs of pj's for Otter. That is all she needed. She has plenty of jeans, lots of blouses & t-shirts, all the basic items. We bought her new tennis shoes a few weeks back and she's found a few pair of new or nearly new shoes recently at assorted thrift stores. So today we saved about $3.00. Last year, she needed everything you can think of and we saved about $30.00 or $35.00 but I'm not complaining! She has plenty of jeans, denim shorts and casual shoes. She has several skirts & blouses for church. So none of those were on the list. I did buy 2 pair of jeans for Bill and I looked for tennis shoes for myself but didn't really find any. I don't really need them yet anyway.

But I am still glad that Oklahoma has the sales-tax holiday. It helps a lot of people. We were originally going to finish up on Sunday, but we don't really need to. We might go to the mall if we feel like it, but we might not either.

Unfortunately, we still had to pay sales tax on the groceries! Which I think is pretty silly, I can see paying tax on non-essentials. But everybody needs food. It's been suggested in the past, but our wonderful (dumb) legislature thinks that it would be a bad idea to remove that particular charge.

We'll pick up Otter's schedule Monday. She will also get her locker assignment and we'll confirm that her bus route is unchanged. Our dental appointments are Monday after work and then probably on Tuesday, Otter will get her hair trimmed. Then she's ready for school. School starts on the 13th. Already!

Otter's driving class went well, the written test was the same as the one the DPS gives to get the learner's permit and she made a 97 on it. We'll get the driving part scheduled soon, but they are already full up until school starts. So it will probably be right after school starts, which is what we were kind of thinking anyway. She is a little nervous about the driving part, which is totally normal, but she'll be fine. She updated her web comic on her blog while ago.

We are having a heat wave. It will be pretty hot, over 100 for the next 3 or 4 days and there is a heat warning. It's finally what we consider to be really hot, not just very warm! So we are going to spend as much time inside with the a/c running as we possibly can. We'll also be in the pool a lot. My prediction for the pooches is that they will be parked on either the kitchen floor (tile) or the entrance way tile (also tile), or in front of one of the a/c vents. Good idea!