Sunday Quick Stuff!

Froggy is here, we have had a great time and have shopped our feet off. My Fenton collection has grown exponentially, and Thanks to Froggy I have a fairly rare piece of cranberry hobnail!

We went to Talequah today, to the Cherokee Heritage Museum and it was fun & informative. Otter took several pictures, I'll get them posted in the next few days. She wanted to make sure I gave her photographic credit, so when the Cherokee pictures show up you can thank Otter!

We've only been to Braum's twice. We might have to remedy that situation tomorrow. We are going to Skiatook and to two other stores after that. One of them is one we went to yesterday but it is closed on Sunday. Actually, I think it's closed on Mondays as well so it will probably have to wait until Tuesday.

So far, the score is: 2 flea markets, 2 antique malls, 1 park - fed 4 squirrels, 1 WalMart, 1 Atwoods Farm & Ranch store, 2 Braum's, 1 Museum. And 6 very tired feet!

Whine Wednesday

It's Wednesday. I'm whining.

I'm whining about the fact that we are pool-less! We've looked on Craigslist and there have been a few that are promising but they have sold fast. There are a couple of others, but for various reasons we probably aren't interested in them. Price, condition, etc. We decided to look at a couple of stores so we checked some on-line ads. BigLots current online ad had a promising pool, so we went to the store. And discovered that their online ad is about 2 weeks out of date. No pools left. Except for what we call kiddie pool size, which is about 1 1/2' deep. So we went to Wallyworld and they do have some, but they are not what we want. Wrong style, size, price. We went to another store (Froggy, remember Atwoods?) since they had the dog food we use on sale and they did have a good ad 2 weeks ago with a bigger and cheaper pool but they were out of stock. Which is what we expected, but since we were there anyway it was worth asking.

So I think we are going to have to spend this summer without a back yard pool. Hopefully, we'll find one on clearance at the end of the summer or we will go get one as soon as the ads come out next spring/summer.

Well, Otter's summer is about over anyway. She's going to Summer School for algebra. She'll start Monday. It will last until the end of July. It's at the intermediate high school that she's attended for the last two years. (Our school district is Intermediate High School for grades 9 & 10 then 11th and 12th grades are at the Senior High School). She passed all of her other classes, and has enough credit points to go on to 11th grade. But there are a couple of classes that have to have a passing grade to be able to go on and algebra is one of them. It's the only one she didn't pass, but it's the one that matters. She really tried, but she is not particularly math-abled. She's like me! So she'll be going to school in the mornings, 7:30 to 12:45. She was hoping to be able to come home and go for a swim, but that's not going to happen this year. Anyway, Summer School will end at the end of July, then she'll have a couple of days break before her annual summer trip to Texas to spend a week with her grandmother. Then she'll have about a week before school starts.

Froggy arrives tomorrow! I have orange slice candy ready. It's a family tradition. Along with peanut M&M's, but I didn't buy those yet because I would have already eaten every last one of them! Flea marketing & thrift shopping are on the schedule for the next few days. Along with a trip to Talequah, which is about an hour east of where we live. There is a Cherokee museum that we want to go to, that's Sunday's plan. Oh, I can't forget the real reason Froggy comes to see me: Braum's!

Some Tuesday Thoughts & Ramblings

The rest of the pictures from Oklahoma City. CHIHULY!

This is a close-up shot of the glass tower that is immediately inside the museum. There is a similar one inside the downtown library in San Antonio, or at least there used to be one. Although it wasn't quite this tall. These things always remind me of squash blossoms.

Standing on the main floor.

This shot was taken from the 2nd floor.

This is the one I want. However, since it probably COSTS MORE THAN MY HOUSE I don't think it's in the budget.

This was set up like an acquarium. It was behind glass and a little dark, so the picture didn't come out the best.

I like these, too.

Chihuly glass is known for the lip wrap, or edge color, that is on most of the pieces in this style. It's heavy glass, much thicker than it looks and must be extremely hard to handle while it's being created. It's all blown glass. They are also very large.

Otter liked the color of these.

This is what I was most interested in seeing. It's a glass ceiling. And it's covered with Chihuly! I told Bill that this is how I want our bedroom ceiling to be decorated. Silly boy, he thinks I mean painted. I'm talking the actual pieces.

More of the ceiling.

And still more ceiling.

This reminds me or either spiders, or Fiesta. Any San Antonio natives will know what I mean.

I absolutely love this one. I'd take it in a heartbeat, but I'd still have the same problem as the green set I like.

This one resembles a sunflower, so of course I like it.

Here's a better shot.

OK, that concludes our tour of the Chihuly Exhibit.

Moving on.

We discovered something this afternoon. The builder that owns the lot behind us is putting up a privacy fence. The entire length of the area that runs behind our street. Wish they'd done it a few months ago. Like before we planted bamboo! And before we installed the bamboo block, which was the real work. They have just put in the posts today, we're going to watch and see how fast they actually get the fence put up. And then in all probability, we'll (we being Bill) go dig up the bamboo. Which won't be that hard, it's not all that spread out yet. We did discuss leaving it. But the privacy fence is set back a couple of feet from our fence line, which would leave about a 4' gap between the bamboo and the fence. Also, the privacy fence would block the light that the bamboo needs which would mean it wouldn't grow very well. If at all. But we would be leaving the block installed, as moles can't get past it. But we'll wait and see, it may take them months to get the fence finished. Although we don't think so.

Other happenings: We are pool-less! Saturday afternoon, the pool decided it was time to leave. It split down one side and was non-repairable. Bill saw it happen and we were able to get out there and redirect the water so that a) no tidal waves taking out the deck, b) no tidal waves coming in the back door and c) the septic system wasn't overloaded with a sudden influx of water! We are going to replace the pool, but it might be at the end of the summer when they are on clearance. Unless we find a good deal now. Of course, this coincided with the "hot" weather hitting and heat alerts being issued for the week. (The hot weather here is pretty warm, but it's still not S. TEXAS hot).

Froggy arrives the day after tomorrow! Thrifting, flea marketing, many trips to Braum's, lots of gossip await.

April 19, 1995 9:02 a.m.

I guess everyone knows what the title refers to. It was a very dark time in the history of Oklahoma, as well as America. While it was not the first terrorist attack on our soil, it was the worst at that time. And it was made even worse by the fact that it was one of our own who did it. Actually, two of our own.

The Memorial is a very solemn place. It's also very beautiful. It's well done and I'm glad we finally went. It's actually two seperate sites, the outside area which is the actual Memorial and is where the building stood and the building next door which is the museum. Pictures are allowed outside, but not inside so these are just the outdoor area. Captions are beneath the picture they describe.

This is the entrance. It's not visible because of the trees, but it's engraved at the top 9:01.

This is a section of the original fence that was around the site while it was being searched, and when the memorial was being built. There are two pieces of fence, one on each side of the entrance. People still bring things to leave on the fence.

This statue is across the street from the entrance. I can't remember the name of the church, but it was damaged in the explosion and the corner has been turned into a memorial by the church. The statue is called Weeping Jesus. It's beautiful. It's not visible in the picture, but the stone ground is pockmarked. It's damage from the explosion.

The tragedy of that day touched us all, not just Oklahoma natives. We all hurt. Some of the remberances people left were from other countries.

Across from the entrance, at the opposite side of the site is another arch. This one reads 9:03.

This is what sits between the two arches. It's only an inch or so deep, but it is black granite like the arches and it looks much deeper. The reflecting pool is actually the area that was originally the street. The same street where the truck bomb was parked. It represents 9:02, which is when it happened.

The area where the building stood is the actual Memorial. This is one of the chairs that make up the Memorial. Each one is engraved with the name of a person who died that day, it didn't show up in the picture but the name is engraved at the front in the glass. The chairs light up at night. Spaced between the rows of chairs like this one are smaller chairs. They are engraved with the names of those precious, innocent children that were there that day. Not all of them were in the onsite day care, there were some that were there with parents or grandparents who had business in the building. The chairs are in neat rows. Off to one end is a section with several other chairs. They represent people who were not actually in the Murrah building but were killed in the explosion. Some of them were in the building across the street which is where the museum is, and at least one of them was in the street in front of the building. And one of them is for a nurse who went inside to try and rescue people if she could, but lost her own life when something fell on her.

This is the entrance, I think this picture was taken from inside the memorial grounds.

The logo of the Memorial is a tree. This is the plaque explaining what the tree logo means. The tree was across from the building and it was damaged in the explosion, but it survived. It's still there and is thriving. At one point, it had to be fenced off from visitors because while it survived the bomb, it was nearly killed by people taking pieces of bark off of it.

Here's the tree. It's known as the Survivor Tree. The gift shop inside the museum sells seeds from it. I didn't buy any, but I would have if we'd had a place for one.

This was painted on the building across the street, during the rescue & recovery efforts on the day it happened. "We search for the truth. We seek Justice. The courts require it. The victims cry for it. And GOD demands it."

This is a shot of the building site itself, with the chairs visible. I was standing under the Survivor Tree when I took this shot. Distance makes it look smaller than it actually is.

Also taken from under the tree, the opposite end from the first picture.

This is the 9:03 arch, the chairs for the people not in the building itself are grouped at that end.

The 9:00 arch. The church steeple visible in the background is the church that has the statue on the corner. There was a building of some type on that corner that was destroyed by the blast.

Like I said before, this one hurt all of us and that includes Texans.

One more shot of the fence. I didn't take a picture of it, but there was one more item left on the fence when we left. Otter stopped her watch at 9:02 when we got there. Then when we left, her watch was hanging on the fence. I was very proud of her for doing that.

This is the wall that the statue of Jesus faces. The church built this as part of their own memorial. Each hole like this one represents a person who died in the bombing.

The double holes represent an unborn child, because there were a few women who were pregnant and their babies died with them.

The museum was very impressive. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to go through it. The first room has a diorama display which shows were everything was located at. It also has a picture on one wall, a picture that was taken from the security camera and shows the truck parked right outside, up next to the building. And one other picture, of the daychare children which was taken about a week before it happened. A few of the children did survive, but most of them didn't.

The tour starts with a recording that was of a meeting in the building that the museum is in. It's a hearing on someone's application to drill for water or for water usage. It started at 9:00. And it ends with the sound of the explosion.

From there, it's divided into several rooms with displays in each of them. It's pretty intense. But it's done so well. One of the rooms towards the end is lined with pictures on the wall. Each picture is one of the people who lost their life that day. There are also pieces of the truck itself in various spots in the museum. And a couple of recreations of what it was like inside, after the explosion.

Here's the website. http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/ It's worth checking out.

Fast & Frantic Friday

I'm still alliterating.

This will be short. It's Friday. It's been a long day and I am tired. And my feet hurt. I've been on them a lot today.

Anyway, we had a great visit with Nana. Bill and Otter took her back to the airport this morning after I went to work. They went out to breakfast on the way to take her. They are spoiled (Bill and Otter)!

We visited the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial yesterday. I have a bunch of pictures and will post them along with my thoughts. It was very intense. I have to think about what I want to say.

Also, we went to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Where they have an entire wing devoted to CHIHULY! I took a bunch of pictures of that as well and they will be posted, but probably on a seperate post from the Memorial.

And now, I'm going to go surf the 'net for a little while. Then I think I'm going to go have a glass of wine and prop my feet up.

Terrific Tuesday Tales!

I'm into alliteration today, apparently. (All the words begin with the same letter). At least as far as my title goes.

It's Day 2 of Nana's visit and we are having a great time. We went to the Chinese buffet for dinner last night. Otter & Bill took Nana to a well-known local shopping center today. Then they made the obligatory trip to WalMart. Tomorrow, I'm not sure about. We made buffalo burgers for Nana tonight. She really liked it. Then we made strawberry ice cream.

But Thursday we will be going to Oklahoma City. To the Memorial. It's a trip I'm torn about. I really want to see it. But I still remember April 19, 1995 and how bad it really was. Nana and I have decided that we will take lots of kleenex. Because we will probably need them.

If we have time after that, we will be going to the art museum in OKC. The one with the entire floor devoted to Chihuly. For the uninitiated, Chihuly is a glass artist. What he does is so beyond mere art that there are not words enough to describe it. I absolutely love glass in all it's forms, and I have been wanting to see the Chihuly art for a while so we are going to try to work it in. We probably will be able to.

Maggie's confused. She's back to being locked out of Otter's room, since Nana doesn't want to sleep with a furry beagle. Frasier's confused but happy about it. His confusion is the result of the hamsters cage being moved to the office. It's low enough that he can see them easily. And he wants them. He's confused because he can see them, but he can't have them.

Poor baby, I don't feel a bit sorry for him!

Quck Friday Catch-Up

No, I did not say catsup (ketchup)! :)

OK, here we go:

Toadles got home safely, he called me Monday evening when he was nearly home and I've gotten emails from him so I know he made it. We enjoyed his visit so much, I think it's been about 2 years since I saw my brother and it was really fun having him here.

Otter went to work with me a couple of days this week and she stayed home a couple of days. She will have a very short summer so she's getting all the enjoyment out of it that she can. More on that later.

The dogs are temporarily forbidden from the back yard. Not because of the bamboo this time. Because of the bunny! We've seen a very young bunny running around out there. It's not a baby, but it is probably this years crop. Frasier would probably love a rabbit dinner, but we'd prefer that he not have one.

Nana arrives Monday! We are excited. She'll be here the entire week, her visit last year was just too short. I had jury duty in the midst of it so I really missed out. Bill and Otter will pick her up at the airport, then we will hit the Chinese buffet for dinner. I will have to work most of the week, but I will be off on Thursday - Bill's birthday.

We had a pretty windy day today. About 10:30 this morning, it was as dark as midnight. And very cloudy. Then very windy. 70+ mph straight line winds. There was some thunder and rain with this, but the wind was the main concern. It was a very fast moving storm with some trees uprooted in places, but not nearly as bad as the wind storm we had 5 years ago last week. I'm really glad that Toadles' visit was last week, because today's (expected) storm hit right about the time he'd have been driving and it was not a good place to be!

OK, we're all caught up now. I think.

Oh yeah - if you attempt to call my cell phone, don't expect to get me. It's still acting up and I've gone Texan Woman on Sprint twice. There will not be a third time. Well, there will be a third time but it will involve me talking directly to customer service and getting results. It won't be pretty. For them, anyway.

Consider Yourself Mooned!

This is what was waiting for us about 9:30 last night. The moon looks like it's partially gone, but it was obscured by whispy clouds that didn't photograph. It was absolutely beautiful. The pictures are posted in order of how they were taken. Otter was the photographer.

The coyotes agreed, we could hear them a few times.

But then they might have just been talking to Toadles.

He has that affect on animals sometimes.

We had a great visit. He called me Friday about 11:30, he was in McAlester which is a couple of hours south. He was calling from there to tell me that he'd taken a side trip and was sightseeing. The reason he was sightseeing is that he thought that SINCE HE'D TAKEN A WRONG TURN, he might as well explore a place he'd never been before. He arrived about 2:00. When I got home about 3:00, he was in his usual position - snoozing on the couch. After he woke up, he told me that he'd taken one more wrong turn, when he thought he was turning into my neighborhood. But he was a little short of the correct street. However, he figured it out right away.

We had a great visit, we went flea marketing Saturday and found a few things. Among other things, I got a $3.00 piece of Fenton so it was a sucessful venture. We also had to go train hunting for Toadles and found several. We went train hunting yesterday as well, we didn't find as much but it was fun. We basically got in the car and headed south on the highway, since we had a very general idea of where something was. We enjoyed his visit. I hope he remembered his way home!

Otter is now planning something. Uncle Toadly woke her up yesterday morning. With an ice cube, to the belly button! Then she returned the favor this morning. I'm not sure what the next step will be, but they will both have something to attempt to put over on each other. I'm just going to get out of the way! :)

Maggie was thinking about a Monday post, but that was before the hole behind the bamboo barrier was discovered. The beagle-sized hole. Which might have taken out a bamboo sprout, we're not sure. But the rest of the bamboo is doing great. It's spreading out and looks pretty healthy. But the dogsters are probably not going to have much access to the back yard for a while. At least, not unsupervised visitation! Maggie might get to post again next week. Maybe.

Websites

I've been cleaning cobwebs from my front porch area. It's suddenly covered in them. If there are spiders in them, we leave them alone. But when they only have dust in them, away they go! There were a bunch of them in the atrium at work today, very suddenly. I guess I've been visited by a bunch of spiders and they must have followed me to work. Strange.

Anyway, the Borg Queen made her appearance and assimilated the cobwebs away. Resistance is Futile, after all.

We're anxiously awaiting Toadles arrival tomorrow. Sometime. Whenever he gets here. With Toadles, it's not a matter of when as in time. It's a matter of when as in a general idea of the day. And I'm sure he'll have many tales to tell about his sightseeing expeditions. (Getting lost to normal people - but we all know that Toadles isn't normal people!). Buffalo burgers and oven fries, whenever he finally turns up.

The hams seem to really like their new wheel. Otter said that it was much quieter last night. The old one was really noisy. The only problem is that we have to figure out how to take the new one off when it needs cleaning. Which will be frequent, because they have apparently been channeling my dad - they don't stop their trips just because somebody has to pee! (Remember the coffee can, Froggy?).

Bill borrowed a sandblaster from somebody he works with yesterday. He bought some headers for the White Lightning from someone on Craigslist and they were badly in need of sandblasting. They look almost brand new now. While he was at it, he also sandblasted a small drill bit he has and then one of my concrete animals that I needed to repaint. I'm not sure when he's going to return it, but until he's finished I'm not even going to think about sweeping up! He will attempt to clean up after himself, but we all know that it won't be clean enough for the Borg Queen!

I Know It's Already June!

But here's the book list for May. Better late than never, I guess.

1. The Stand by Stephen King. The best of the best. I've read it several times and will read it several more times. It's just that good. Otter agrees with me, by the way.

2. CSI: Secret Identity. Steven Grant, Gabriel Rodrigues and Steven Perkins. CSI in manga form. Otter checked it out at the library, then she told me I had to read it. It was good.

3. Stalking the Plumed Serpent & Other Adventures in Herpetology by D. Bruce Means. Waste of time, I didn't get very far before I gave up. Not well-written and for an expert, he doesn't seem to know much!

4. Water Dogs by Lewis Robinson. OK, a quick read but not the best.

5. The Roots of Desire, the Myth, Meaning and () Power of Red Hair by Marion Roach. Can we say total complete waste of time? Most of what was in this book is stuff that I have seen many times over, a lot of it is on the internet. The author is a redhead, but she didn't do any research. At all. Filled with extremely incorrect information.

6. Spiders, the Ultimate Predators. Stephen Dalton. Interesting, lots of cool pictures. We like spiders.

7. Lone Wolf, the Search for Eric Rudolph. by Mary Anne Vallers. Rudolph is the person who bombed the Atlanta olympics and also several murder factories (abortion providers). I don't agree with his tactics, by the way. But the book was interesting. The author was pretty obviously pro-death (choice) and most likely feminist. But the book was well written and she obviously spent a lot of time researching it.

8. Wedding Belles by Haywood Smith. The was actually part 3 in a series and the first I've read by this author. It was funny.

9. The Red Hat Club by Haywood Smith, part one.

10. The Red Hat Club Rides Again by Haywood Smith. Part three. I hope that she writes more in this series, it was funny.

Frasier is not happy. He's confused. Seems he discovered the hamster cage this morning. We've been moving them to the office the last several nights, since the wheel that was attached to the cage could probably be heard all the way in Texas. We move it back to Otter's room in the mornings. I was checking my email this morning before the cage got moved back, Frasier was in his usual spot - trying to get all my attention - when he caught sight of movement inside the cage. He sat and stared at the cage for about 10 minutes. Then he scooted closer. The cage was sitting up on something, so he couldn't reach it. But then he started getting into the position that prefaces standing on his back legs. Which is when I grabbed him by the collar and then took the cage back to Otter's room. Where it sits on top of her chest of drawers and is much higher up. Frasier has very seldom gone into Otter's room for more than a few minutes. But when we got home this afternoon, we cleaned the cage and also attached a new set of climbing tubes which have an external wheel and it's very quiet. The dogs are shut out of Otter's room while we clean the cage. Frasier waited patiently, then he immediately went to sit in front of the chest of drawers and stare at the cage. At one point, Otter said he was about to stand up on his back feet so she stopped him and chased him out of her room. He doesn't seem to understand why he can't have the scooby snacks that he can clearly see and smell. Life's not fair! Poor dog is so spoiled...

Toadles arrives the day after tomorrow! We can hardly wait. Maggie and Frasier are eager to meet him. Frasier probably will ask Toadles to take the snacks out of the cage for him, and Maggie will probably spend her time trying to monopolize his attention and then sneak into bed with him so she can steal the covers. She does that.